The Literal Difference Is Staggering (Part II)

God is love, but what does love look like? What does God look like? God’s love is discovered in Christ Jesus. John 3:16:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

God, His love, His only begotten Son Christ Jesus, and His Word are all one. 

What does the Father look like? Jesus said to Philip in John 14:9:

...he that hath seen me hath seen the Father;...

Then John 14:24:

He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.

Jesus Christ is the Word of God. And how about Colossians 2:8-9:

8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

Jesus Christ is God’s love to this world. He is our atonement for sin. He is our promise of life and life more abundantly. He is the promise of eternal life. He is the power to live a Godly, victorious life. Have you found this Jesus? Are you born-again? Would you like to have all sin and shame expunged from your record as though you had never sinned? GodSaidManSaid has good news. Today is your day of salvation. Click onto "Further With Jesus" for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT. 

GOD SAID, Proverbs 26:2:

As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.

GOD SAID, Deuteronomy 4:5-8:

5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.

6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

7 For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?

8 And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?

GOD SAID, Proverbs 10:16-17:

16 The labour of the righteous tendeth to life: the fruit of the wicked to sin.

17 He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: but he that refuseth reproof erreth.

GOD SAID, Proverbs 11:19:

As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death.

GOD SAID, Psalms 91:7-11:

7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

9 Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;

10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

MAN SAID: The commandments in the Bible are old, archaic dictums written by men and not relevant to an enlightened, sophisticated society. There is no God! Christians are a motley bunch of zeroes. 

Now THE RECORD. This is the second feature in a series titled "The Literal Difference Is Staggering." In this series GodSaidManSaid once again proves the full supernatural inerrancy of the Word of God. This feature will again prove that God is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. This article highlights how astonishingly literal the scriptures are and the very real difference God places between the camp of the cursing and the camp of the blessing. Welcome to GodSaidManSaid. May the face of the Lord shine upon you with Light and Truth. 

"...so the curse causeless shall not come" (Proverbs 26:2). Somebody did something. Initially, in the beginning, Adam and Eve were sinless, immortal, and dwelt in paradise — the Garden of Eden. But in an act of unbelief and disobedience, our grandmother Eve ate of the forbidden tree and Adam followed his wife’s pernicious ways. That day they died spiritually, were booted out of paradise to be followed years later by their physical death. Our original parents sold their birthright, and consequently that of their offspring, to Satan who became the god (little g-od) of this earth. Consequently, the law of sin and death began to reign. Somebody did something. 

There is a cause and effect that doesn’t end with Adam and Eve. Exodus 34:6-7:

6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

Numbers 14:18:

The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

It doesn’t end here either. Now stack on our own disobedience. Somebody did something, for "...the curse causeless shall not come." 

Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language declares one of the definitions of curse as "condemnation; sentence of divine vengeance on sinners." A prime example of divine vengeance on those who reject God’s commandments is found in Deuteronomy 28:15-68. Verses 15-23 follow:

15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:

16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.

17 Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.

18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.

19 Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

20 The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.

21 The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.

22 The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.

23 And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.

God’s love is in His commandments and instructions. The Bible’s foremost example of this is found 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.

God so loved this world He gave His only begotten Son to redeem our souls from sin through the unparalleled miracle of born-again. Obeying this commandment opens the door to the new birth, and eternal life, and literally to the secret place of the most high. Conversely, disobeying dooms a soul to everlasting damnation. Remember, every commandment of God has inherent within it a blessing or a curse. Every precept and commandment of God is truth. Psalms 19:9 reads:

...the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

Those who obey the Word of God simply reap the benefits of doing the right thing. Those who disobey the commandments simply reap the negative results — the curse of doing the wrong thing. Note: "...so the curse causeless shall not come." Somebody did something. 

In the first GodSaidManSaid feature in this series, we listed six situations that demonstrated the principle of blessing and cursing and just how astonishingly literal the scriptures are, for example, when Psalms 91:7 speaks of the faithful and says:

A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

In the first article, we separated the camp of those who disobey the Word of God from those who obey it and showed the fruits of their respective actions. The ill effects in the camp of the disobedient numbered into the billions, but in the camp of the obedient the number was a staggering — zero! 

In this article we will consider situations seven through twelve.

(7.) The situation: God commands against the consumption of anything that harms the body (I Corinthians 3:16-17), and, of course, against anything illegal. The following headline is from 2007 in England’s dailymail.co.uk:

The headline from England’s Daily Mail, concerning the use of marijuana reads, "Smoking Just One Cannabis Joint Raises Danger of Mental Illness by 40%." The following excerpts are from that article.

With up to 40 per cent of teenagers and young adults in the UK believed to have tried cannabis, the researchers estimate that the drug could be behind 14 per cent of cases of schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses.

Research completed by leading psychiatrist Professor Robin Murray in 2005 showed that those who smoked the drug regularly at 18 were 1.6 times more likely to suffer serious psychiatric problems, including schizophrenia, by their mid-20s.

For those who were regular users at 15, the stakes were even higher, with their risk of mental illness by the age of 26 being 4.5 times greater than normal. [End of quote]

The Wages of Sin — Part Three

In the camp of the disobedient: If you carry the numbers forward globally, those negatively affected would be into the hundreds of millions.

In the camp of the obedient: Those negatively affected: zero.

(8.) The situation: God strictly commands against homosexuality, a crime punishable in the scriptures by death. Those shackled by this bondage must turn to Christ for forgiveness and deliverance. The ill effects of this disobedience are very long — very long. For example, the homosexual community is 5,000 times more likely to contract AIDS than their heterosexual brethren, and the male homosexual’s life span is 8 to 20 years shorter, with one body of research pegging life expectancy at 41 years.

In the camp of the disobedient: Using a global yardstick of 3% of the population being homosexual, those negatively affected: 200,000,000.

In the camp of the obedient: Those negatively affected: zero.

Homosexuality Updated
Homosexuality Part II
QandA, Homosexuality
G.P. — Incest and Homosexuality
Gay Marriage
Homosexuality and a Way of Escape

(9.) The situation: Divorce is only permitted scripturally as a result of fornication, but not in the world today, and the results of rejecting God’s words are utterly devastating. In a report titled "The Effects of Divorce on America" we find this excerpt:

Each year, over one million American children suffer as their parents divorce. Moreover, half of all children born in wedlock this year will see their parents divorce before reaching their eighteenth birthday.  [End of quote]

Children of divorced households are at greater exposure to child abuse and neglect. They demonstrate more health, emotional, and behavioral problems, are involved more frequently in crime and drugs, and record higher levels of suicide, and this is just the beginning.

In the camp of the disobedient: Those negatively affected in the U.S. alone: 1,000,000.

In the camp of the obedient: Those negatively affected: zero.

Divorce

(10.) The situation: God commands against pre-marital sex. The following June 8, 2007 Reuters headline reads, "Study: Relatively new STD eclipses gonorrhea," and the sub-headline reads, "Infection prevalence was 11 times higher in cohabitating couples, study finds."

In the camp of the disobedient: Those negatively affected: millions.

In the camp of the obedient: Those negatively affected: zero.

It’s Not What Goes In But What Comes Out That Defiles
Fornication

(11.) The situation: God commands His people to go to church, and now this paragraph from the GodSaidManSaid feature, "The Power of Going To Church:"

Hundreds of studies have been, and are presently being conducted to ascertain whether there is any connection between religious faith and health. Some of the latest results are shocking to the unbelieving world. In 1999 the results of a study conducted by the University of Texas were published. Twenty-two thousand people were followed over a nine year period. Those who attended church or synagogue more than once a week lived an average of eight years longer than those who didn’t. Let me say it another way: those who attended church more than once a week lived 2,920 days or 11% longer than those who didn’t.

A Yale study reported that churchgoers were less likely to become physically disabled. In a syndicated article released by Knight Ridder Newspapers it was recorded:

Several studies concluded that people who attended religious services regularly are hospitalized less often and have stronger immune systems than people who rarely or never attend. [End of quote]

Let’s take these numbers in reverse. Those who go to church more than once a week live 11% or eight years longer. For discussion’s sake let us assume that 20% of the U.S. population falls into this category. Here’s the math:

300,000,000 U.S. population

times .8 one or less times in church per week

equals 240,000,000 people

times 8 years lost

equals 1,920,000,000 total years lost in America

In the camp of the "unchurched”: The aggregate loss of years: 1,920,000,000.

In the camp of the "churched”: The aggregate loss of years: zero.

The Power of Going To Church

(12.) The situation: God commands against the consumption of alcoholic beverages. See "Alcohol and Christians."

A woman with a partner on alcohol is 360% more likely to be physically abused than one whose partner is a teetotaler.

In the camp of the disobedient: Those negatively affected globally: millions.

In the camp of the obedient: Those negatively affected globally: zero.

WINE
Wine II
Alcohol and Christians (Part Two)
The Curse of Alcohol

Psalms 91:7:

A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

How marvelously literal and absolutely true are the words of God. They are, most literally, life or death, and man chooses the camp in which he will dwell. In the camp of the zeroes is where the obedient reside. 

It’s important to note that when men and women come to Christ, they bring with them the fruit of their disobedience, for which Christ is not only the atonement, but also the solution to sin’s many maladies. Choose life and live! 

GOD SAID, Proverbs 26:2:

As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.

GOD SAID, Deuteronomy 4:5-8:

5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.

6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

7 For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?

8 And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?

GOD SAID, Proverbs 10:16-17:

16 The labour of the righteous tendeth to life: the fruit of the wicked to sin.

17 He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: but he that refuseth reproof erreth.

GOD SAID, Proverbs 11:19:

As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death.

GOD SAID, Psalms 91:7-11:

7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

9 Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;

10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

MAN SAID: The commandments in the Bible are old, archaic dictums written by men and not relevant to an enlightened, sophisticated society. There is no God! Christians are a motley bunch of zeroes. 

Now you have THE RECORD. 




References: 

Authorized King James Version

 

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