The Knowledge of Good and Evil, Part 3 of 3

There are many prophecies contained within the Bible concerning the end of time, but Daniel 12:4 takes on a special and ominous  meaning in light of our discussion.  This is most definitely a prophecy that has come to pass within this generation.  There are signs in the heavens, such as the blood moons and fire falling from the sky.  The earth is quaking in its misery, earthquakes in divers places, and there are news reports of huge numbers of fish and  sea creatures washing up on the beaches dead. The intensity of war keeps increasing while there are those who cry peace, peace.

What is it that prevents mankind from being fearful and running to God?  It is the vast knowledge of good and evil that allows us to explain all of these events away.   Natural occurrence or climate changes are usually the culprit and at the end of the day we feel smug and protected by our vast knowledge of the earth events taking place.  We are assured that God is not pouring out his vengeance upon an evil generation.  Why? Is it because we have created a God of love who is about to rain down favors upon his children.  This type of God would not rain down wrath upon his children.  The Book of Revelation depicts a God who is storing up his wrath awaiting for that moment to pour out.   Revelation 16:1  And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.

Growing up in the Mississippi’s southern countryside in the early fifties when the knowledge of good and evil was not freely dissimulated, we were taught to respect the works of God.  When the lightning began to flash and the thunder roared, we were taught to find a place to sit and be quiet.  As the knowledge of good and evil increased we began to understand the scientific definition and root cause of thunder and lightning, in the process we lost some of our fear of God.  The process began in the garden of Eden, as knowledge, increase the fear of God diminish. 

Freedom of religion was one of the great cornerstones that this nation was founded upon, yet today there is a movement to promote freedom from religion.    The knowledge of the world has increased and the true knowledge of God has decreased, yet there seems to be an increased knowledge of the awareness of God all around us, a type of God that is alien to the God of the Bible.   Who God is and what God is doing is based upon our modern day interpretation of the scripture.   It could be described as a false faith that requires a level of indoctrination to sustain it.  In a conversation with his disciples, Jesus mused in Luke 18:8,... Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

The earth as a testing ground, a place for the preparation of souls to occupy the kingdom of God is a concept or an idea that has never been fully accepted by mankind since partaking of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.    After the Devil corrupted a third of God, angels and brought corruption upon the earth, God did not choose to make a full end.   Jeremiah 4:23-25  I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.  Jeremiah speaks of a time before the beginning of the restoration works of God.

Genesis 1:2-5  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.  And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

God in his creative works spoke the words, “let there be light”.   The darkness was caused by a catastrophic event that had taken place.  God saw the light and it was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.  In a mortal and the natural world, there are opposites, for one attribute to exist the opposite must also exist.  For light to exist darkness must also exist.  Good is the opposite of evil.  When the world is restored to its former state, before the devil corrupted it, there will be no darkness, no sin, and even the seas will disappear.  Revelation 21:1  And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.  Revelation 21:25  And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.  In the spiritual realm the knowledge of good and evil is no more, only the knowledge of God prevails.

In God’s administration or world affairs choices are always given.  The purpose of choices is the perfect way to root out those who are unfit for the kingdom.   Choices can be viewed as a process of culling out the bad fruit.  Bad choices are only acceptable when we accept the finish work of the Cross as an atonement for our sins. When God restore this earth according to the plan laid out in the Book of Revelation, what happen in the past when the Devil made the wrong choice and rebel against God is not going to happen in the renewed Kingdom of God.

Humans are so good at doing bad,  God knows this and the Devil know this.  Down through the ages of the scripture, God has allowed the Devil to tempt man.  One of the messages we are supposed to get out of the story of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is, there is God’s way and there is the Devil’s way.  Our vast knowledge often presents us with a path that seems right, but is contrary to the way of God.  Often the two ways seem to coincide with each other and thereby the sin is minimized. 

To promote the Devil’s agenda, there has never been a need to rewrite the Bible even though many have expressed that need.  It is all a matter of interpretation.  To attempt to rewrite the Bible is a product of a reprobate mind.  Romans 1:28  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;  A person who are classified by the scripture as having a reprobate mind have some knowledge of God and it is contained within their knowledge of good and evil.  They know of His commandments, but they live impure lives and have very little respect or desire to please God. They have no fear of God.  A person with a reprobate mind live corrupt and selfish lives, sin is justified and acceptable it becomes a matter of interpretation.  The reprobates are those whom God has rejected and has left to their own devices and they are leading many astray.

How we use the scripture has always been a  matter of interpretation.   It is evil to use the word of God for the advancement of our worldly pleasures.  Many are using the scripture for financial gain and claiming it to be the will of God,  as we said, it is a matter of interpretation.   In the garden the Devil used the scripture or the Word of God to his own advantage.  He tried the same trick with Jesus.  Matthew 4:5-7  Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

God's exercised his authority over man, as a creature that had reason and freedom of the will. God commanded the man, who stood as a public person, the father and representative of all mankind, to receive the law of God, as he had lately received a nature, for himself and all his. God commanded all the creatures, according to their capacity; the settled course of nature is a law, Ps 148:6; 104:9. The brute-creatures have their respective instincts; but man was made capable of performing the reasonable service, and therefore received, not only the command of a Creator, but the command of a Prince and Master. Though Adam was a very great man, a very good man, and a very happy man, God commanded him; and the command was no disparagement to his greatness, no reproach to his goodness, nor any diminution at all to his happiness. We must acknowledge God's right to rule us, and it is our obligation to be ruled by him; and never allow our will to be in contradiction to, or competition with, the will of God.

There was nothing essentially evil about the tree or the fruit of the tree. It is unlikely that eating the fruit truly gave Adam and Eve any further knowledge. It was the act of disobedience that opened Adam and Eve’s eyes to evil.  Their sin of disobeying God brought sin and evil into the world and into their lives. Eating the fruit, as an act of disobedience against God, was what gave Adam and Eve knowledge of good and evil.

God did not want Adam and Eve to sin. God knew ahead of time what the results of sin would be. God knew that Adam and Eve would sin and would thereby bring evil, suffering, and death into the world. Why, then, did God allow Satan to tempt Adam and Eve? God allowed Satan to tempt Adam and Eve to force them to make the choice. Adam and Eve chose, of their own free will, to disobey God and eat the forbidden fruit. The results—evil, sin, suffering, sickness, and death—have plagued the world ever since. Adam and Eve's decision results in every person being born with a sin nature, a tendency to sin. Adam and Eve's decision is what ultimately required Jesus Christ to die on the cross and shed His blood on our behalf. Through faith in Christ, we can be free from sin's consequences, and ultimately free from sin itself

The Knowledge of Good and Evil, Part 2 of 3

Daniel 12:4  But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

The Bible often refers to two different types of knowledge, the knowledge of God, which include wisdom as an active attribute, which was given to Solomon and the knowledge of good and evil. Proverbs 2:5  Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.   1 Corinthians 15:34  Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.  Then there is that type of knowledge described as the knowledge of good and evil.  The use of the term good an evil is a Merism.  A Merism invokes a statement of “polar extremes” as a way of embracing everything that lies between them.  Therefore the knowledge of good and evil encompass the knowledge of the universe.   Genesis 2:17  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it:...  

At the close of Daniel’s prophecies he was instructed to, seal the book of prophecies until the time of the end.    The last part of Daniel 12:4 should make us think of the transportation age and the knowledge explosion that took place within the past century.  Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.   At least 6000 years have passed since God created Adam.  The destruction of the tower of Babel and the confusion of the languages was used to control the flow of knowledge until the time of the end.  Genesis 11:7  Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.  This control factor slowed the dispersion of the knowledge of good and evil so that God was able to maintained the timetable that he had established from the beginning of the world.  

The knowledge of good and evil or all the knowledge of the universe has increased exponentially within the last one hundred years.  All but the last hundred years of man's existence he has either walked or rode animals as a major mode of transportation.  The 20^th Century saw man invent automobiles, planes and spacecrafts and even travel to the moon.  Think about this, a couple of centuries ago, It took men 160 years to produce a steam engine that really worked,  from conception to completion.  The nuclear bomb was built in just 6 years a few decades ago, and today’s tech inventions fly from paper to prototype in just days, and is mass production in mere weeks!  As Daniel prophesied, many are traveling to and fro, and the knowledge of the universe  has increased.   There is a downside to this travel and knowledge that God in his infinitive wisdom was trying to protect man from.   The spread of diseases is one downside that quickly comes to mind.

Isaiah 5:20  Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!  The knowledge of good and evil have overshadowed the knowledge of God and it is being used today to discredit or reshape the teachings of the Bible.   That which once was considered sacred is now considered to be wrong and evil is now considered good.  Our political and religious leaders are speedily embracing policies and doctrines that are contrary to the teaching of the Word of God, and it is being hailed as a good thing by the masses.

It began in the Garden of Eden, a flagrant attempt by the Devil to discredit the word of God by planting a subtle seed of doubt in the hearer's mind.   Once the doorway to the knowledge of good and evil, or all of the knowledge of the universe was open, God and the Devil knew that this knowledge would continue to grow and the seeds of doubt would flourish.   Playing loose with the interpretation of what God said is a tool that the Devil that has used down through the ages.  This seed of doubt manifested itself when God was dealing with Abraham and Sarah and it again reared its ugly head when the Angel announced the birth of John the Baptist.  The knowledge of the universe has allowed the 'created' to question the validity of the 'creator'. 

 There is an increased level of disbelief  in todays society and it is proportional to the spread of the knowledge of good and evil.   Many who came of age in a Christian environment are finding it hard to maintain their indoctrinated views in a changing world.   This level of disbelief is aided by those who casting aside the contextual nature of the scripture, misinterpret and misapply the scripture in favor of sermonizing events as if they were a separate entity.  This is done to produce messages that caters to the indoctrinated and emotional state of humanity, producing an emotional high that is often referred to as the 'Spirit of God.' This concept cannot be sustained through a deeper understanding of the Word of God, nor by common sense.  It is the root cause that many are walking away from the teachings of old.

An essential part of the knowledge of God was the fear of God.  Proverbs 1:7  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.  The fear of God has been cast aside and a more friendly and politically correct version of God has been created.  The church that Jesus ordained has been taken over by those who are skilled in turning the Church of God into a  business that caters to their own financial advancement. The sellable attributes or buzz words of Christianity is good health, prosperity, increase.  In the book of Revelation, Jesus spoke of his hatred for those who came into the church and set themselves up as leaders.  Revelation 2:15  So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.

To continue the discussion of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we need to look closer at the reason God placed this tree in the midst of the garden.  Many have framed the question  that if it was God’s desire to eradicate sin, why place the temptation before man.  The question is based upon a false allegation that it was God’s intent to eradicate sin.  Let your mind focus on another question.  Did God create Lucifer as a sinful angel or did Lucifer choose to sin?  Did God create Adam to sin or did Adam choose to sin?   Now lets take a step backward, did God create the darkness that engulfed the earth when Lucifer rebelled or was it caused by the rebellion of Lucifer?  We must be careful that the knowledge of good and evil does not taint our answer.  God is looking for souls that is capable of standing up to the devil.  These souls will make up his new kingdom.  This is a test and the  Book of Genesis tells us how it all began, the Book of Revelation tells how all of this is going to end.

Genesis 3:5  For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.  It would be pointless to proceed in this discussion without addressing the  statement attributed to the Devil.  At this point to try to make the case that the Devil was a liar would be moot because he did not lie.   How can he be a liar when he is telling the truth?  The answer can be found in John 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.  Simply put, the last part of the verse tells us that if we speak the Word of God for our own benefit we lie.  The problem is in how do we acclimate the statement of God with what the Devil said when we know the rest of the story.  Many within the sphere of religious endearment find it hard to accept the statement of God when the man did not fall dead  the moment he took a bite of the fruit.  Our understanding of the event is based upon whether we use the knowledge and wisdom of God or the knowledge of good and evil. 

Based upon what we know about what happen the best interpretation is achieved when we look at what God said, “the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”, and what the Devil said, “the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened”.  From these two statements we should be able to see that this death, God spoke of was the separation of the soul from its creator.  A spiritual God addresses the spiritual aspects of humanity. This death was achieved when man fail the test and began to worship his natural and emotional self.  

When God created man, a timeline was implied by the use of the translated word, “subdue” rather than “occupy”.  To subdue means to bring into subjection and prepare for departure.  Genesis 1:28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it…  The use of the word occupy would have been indicative of a force or people preparing to remaining for an extended and indefinite period of time. 

Once Adam and Eve disobeyed God and tasted the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, a floodgate of knowledge and emotional experiences were  open up to them.  When they began to experience the fruit of their vast knowledge, the emotional conflict caused by the battle between good and evil was overpowering.  They looked upon themselves and they saw themselves different from what God had intended for them to see and were ashamed of what God had created.  What was it that changed when they partook of the fruit?  We know that when their eyes were open, they saw things differently.  Was it the sight of their naked bodies that unleashed a flurry of emotional or sexual highs that took control of their mind, causing them to fashion garments and trying to hide from God?

God had placed man in the garden in a protective state.  He gave man a clear knowledge of the things around him.  Using what we will call common sense Adam was able to name all of the animals.  Genesis 2:19  And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

 He provided for man all of the necessities of life, there was no need to explore that dark area of emotional confusion that existed in the knowledge of good and evil.   That forbidden knowledge manifested itself soon afterward and caused Cain to slay Abel, his brother.  

The Knowledge of Good and Evil, Part 1 of 3

Genesis 2:16-17  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Many of us have heard beautiful crafted sermons delivered based upon this verse that expounded upon the failure of Adam to keep the commandment of God.  It seems that the full implication of this tragic failure is overshadowed by Adam’s disobedient nature.  Many listeners are often left with unanswered and unvocalized questions, because of our fear of questioning the works of God. What is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  A clue can be found in the way the words are phrased.  Why would God deny man access to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?  That will be the focus of the lesson.  Did God intend for Adam to live in an ignorant state of bliss?  The answer is ‘no’, we will expound later.

Now, before we proceed further, let's take a closer look at the conversation  between the Devil and Eve.  Genesis 3:1-5  Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. (Somehow I cannot get over the idea that Eve changed the message of God.  Did God command Adam not to touch the tree?) 

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.  Keep in mind it was the Devil intention, then as well as now to destroy the Word of God, and it began with a simple misrepresentation of God and a misinterpretation of what God said.   The Devil plan is based upon the future, it is the prophecies of God that disturb him.   That old Satan was not out to just destroy Adam, he was trying to destroy what Man represented.  

The creation of man was not something that God did as an afterthought or to past time, neither did he create man to have someone to give stuff to.  A deeper understanding of the scripture will reveal that a battle between good and evil had already taken place and Satan and his demons had been cast out upon the earth.   This epic battle that Jesus alluded to in Luke 10:18  ”And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven,” had already taken place between the Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.  Man was created with a purpose in mind.  Genesis 1:28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.   The words ‘replenish’ and ‘subdue’ should enlighten us as to God’s future plan and it is manifested through the fulfillment of his prophecies.  

The Bible clearly states that God created Adam and Eve and put them in the garden filled with trees that produced good things to eat.   However, according to the English translation, God also created a tree that would give the eater the knowledge of good and evil and He commands Adam not to eat its fruit.  Now this is that question that tends to plague mankind, why would God create something that was banned and, specifically, why would it be a tree whose fruit offered the knowledge of good and evil? Isn't knowledge good?  Even the Bible teaches us that the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge.  This is a question that deserves an answer and the answer must exist within the meaning of the phrase “the knowledge of good and evil” and not some outside conjectures.

If we were to proceed without getting a clear knowledge of the meaning of the phrase “the knowledge of good and evil”, it's conceivable that we will end up with a distorted and polluted view of God’s plan and the purpose of creating man.  It began as a simple task So that man might know there was a sovereign Lord, to whom he owed obedience. For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.  A simple statement that the Devil used to inject a level of confusion into the Word of God that is prevalent in this day.  Did God fail to carry out his threat when he said to the man you will die if you eat of the fruit of the tree?   Do man interpret or translate the message of God wrong the same as the Devil did in the garden? 

Once the man was tempted and did partake of the forbidden fruit, he entered into a partnership agreement with the master of deceit and began to follow his directives, the same as the fallen angels that preceded him and were cast out. Adam, now following in the footsteps of the fallen angels was cast out, also. Man began to interpret and reinterpret the meaning of God's word based upon his infinite knowledge of good and evil. The line of separation between good and evil became blurred.  What was once considered evil became 'good' and the desires of man became accepted as the will of God.  

When God created man he gave him the necessary knowledge to carry out the task that was assigned to him.  This scripture also implies that man was created with a type of God given knowledge necessary to carry out the directives of God.  Genesis 2:19  And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.  This in itself is indicative of a God given knowledge. He also created an access for man to achieve wisdom and knowledge through him, as in the case of Solomon. There is a difference between the God given knowledge and the knowledge of good and evil.   Sometime the English translation  can be misleading.

 The knowledge of good and evil is what is called a “merism.”  A merism is an expression of totality by the mention of opposites. You mention some opposites and it implies everything in between.  In the Hebrew language we  have a lot of merisms.  For example, the west and the east are used as merisms.  Heaven and hell, if I ascend to heaven there you are, if I go to Sheol there you are. This does not mean that God is only at the two extremes.  It means He is everywhere.  Near and far are used as merisms. “Peace to the far and peace to the near,” says the Lord. In other words peace to everybody. More examples of merisms— “going out and coming in” is a fairly common merism. “The Lord will keep your going out and coming in,” meaning the Lord will take care of everything in your life.

Merism involves a statement of “polar extremes” as a way of embracing everything that lies between them. A final example of this would be,  I have searched “high and low “ for that thing, meaning I have searched everywhere.

The knowledge of good and evil is a way of saying in Hebrew “all knowledge, knowledge of everything” and that is what God does not want people to know. If you read the story, you see that is what Satan says. He says, “Hey, he knows you will become like gods knowing everything. That is what he is trying to keep from you. Don’t you want to know everything?” Knowing everything sounds interesting. And they do and after the fall God says, he is speaking again in heaven as he often does in many places in Scripture, not just Genesis, “Look they have become like one of us, they know good and evil, they know everything.”  It takes time and study to achieve the knowledge of the world, the idea is that we now have more knowledge than we can morally handle.

Part of the human dilemma as a consequence of the fall of man is that we have this enormous knowledge of how to do evil as well as good. The same human being that knows how to create a computer for communication purposes know how to use that same computer for destructive purposes. The same skill set that uses atomic energy for good can also make weapons out of it. Unlike animals we have enormous capacity for choices; taking skills that could use and should use for good and employing them for evil. That is the human dilemma. We are in trouble because of our hungry for this knowledge of the good and evil.  

Deconstructing God

Deconstructing God

Malachi 3:6  For I am the LORD, I change not…

Many believe the future of humanity as we know it is at risk because our system of values has become corrupt and the world at large is suffering from moral bankruptcy.  We derive our value systems from our cultures and our cultures get their values from religion.   Christianity once was that flagship religion  whose mission was to convert the world, the same as democracy was hailed as the government of choice by many emerging nations. 

The earth is groaning under the pains of global warming, wars, and Christian values are becoming more and more toxic every day.   Romans 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. The president of the United States chose to publicly state,  “America is no longer a Christian nation.”  Our schools now can teach that man evolved from apes, but they cannot teach that man was created by God.  Christianity has dumbed down and accepted a position of adaptability as it seeks to create a non-confrontational God.

At an early age, my first impression of God was that of an angry God who underwent periods of silence when dealing with his wayward creation.  A fact that has been removed from our modern day interpretation of the scripture is that God often vented his anger and frustration upon his creation.   David understood and expressed the sentiment of God heart when he said in Psalms 7:11, “God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.”  God’s wrath was poured out in the form of a flood in Noah’s day and he continued to vent  his angry when dealing with the people of the wicked nations. 

God’s anger peaked when he gave Israel,  his bride, his chosen people a bill of divorcement.  Jeremiah 3:8  And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah (western civilization)  feared not, but went and played the harlot also.  God spoke through his prophets concerning the final consummation of things, then God was silent until the fulfillment of time and his Son came forth, not to broker a peace or prosperity, but a plan of salvation.   The grace of God brought through the works of the cross did not turn God into a fun loving God, but a God who is storing up his wrath until the works of Grace is complete. Revelation 15:7  And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.

Now I  have introduced an idea or concept of God that is not politically correct, nor is it in the best interest of promoting a loving God.   The Old Testiment depicted a God that was prone to bouts of angry and long periods of silence.  The Old Testiment introduced us to a God that actively  participated in killing sprees.  The New Testament introduced us to the Son of God who extolled the virtues of love.  To overcome the obstacles presented in the Old Testiment and to make God more user friendly it became necessary to deconstruct and reconstruct God in a fashion that is compatible with todays standards.   

Nations that were once considered  ‘God fearing nation’ are backing away from the concept of one nation under God.  World leaders seek to shed the image of a Christian nation, and many have publicly stated that the way of the cross is just one of many ways to this new concept of heaven.  The church had no qualms about making God more user friendly, because it open up a  new level of power and control.  Under the direction of the church,  this deconstruction and reconstruction process produced a type of religion, (charismatic religion) that embodies many of the excesses that the God of old frown upon.

To deconstruct means to systematically remove layer after layer of the supporting structure, whether it is an idea, concept or even a religious deity.  This is done for the purpose of doing an analytical examination of something (as a theory) often in order to reveal its inadequacy  or relevance and to bring about changes.  Deconstruction is an environmentally friendly, it is the  alternate to demolition or destruction.    Rather than destroying or cast aside and item, idea, or even God, it is  more fitting that a process deconstructing and reconstructing be initiated.   The children of Israel attempted to do the same thing at the base of the Holy Mountain.  They just wanted a God that they could see and touch. 

 In our modern and ever changing world, it is necessary that certain items, things or even our belief structure be updated to maintain their relevancy in a modern and  high-tech society.  Let's look at the cook stove of the early 1900’s, a wood burning configuration  that certainly would be out of place in the modern homes of today.  Yet no home would be complete without the presence of a stove.   To fulfill the need of the home did not require creating a new method of processing food, heat would still be needed to heat a chamber or oven to a temperature necessary to cook the food.  Therefore a process of deconstructing and reconstructing the wood stove allowed for the emergence of the gas, electric and microwave ovens, thus eliminating the smoke and grit.  Yet, they all have one thing in common that makes them an oven.  

Blessings and miracles were the first two attributes of God that was subjected to an analytical examination.  A blessing had to be more than the power to act in God’s name, it had to represent financial gain.  A miracle became something that could be advertised and even sold.   Blessings and the miracle would be the selling points of this new or updated God.   The key to obtaining the blessing would be through an unholy translation of the scripture call “the planting of a seed”.  Jesus attempted to correct the disciples thinking when he stated in  Matthew 5:45  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.  There are things that God allows or ‘maketh’ without regard to one’s status as a believer or not. 

There is no divine directive that says the design of a stove cannot change, but there is a divine directive that deals with the changing of God.  God simply stated in  Malachi 3:6  For I am the LORD, I change not…    As a child growing up in a church going family the name of God was spoken with reverence and respect.   We were taught to never use the name of God in vain.  There was always the proper place and time to honor and praise God.   Often praise and prayer were a private thing being careful to adhere to the teaching of Matthew 7:6  Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. 

This new or reconstructed God can now be found in many places where he once was not found.  Many of us are doubtful as to whether God wants to be acknowledged in some of the venues that make the claim of honoring God.   The rap star, whose music caused many to blush, is often quoted as thanking God for his blessings.  God has exploded all over the social media and many have concluded that God is doing great things.  If you type “Amen’ under the picture of the huge stack of money ‘God’ will give it to you.  Once the door was open to the redesigning of of God many became caught up in defining and redefining God.   Today ‘God’ can be found doing so many wonderful things that the judgement of God spoken of in the Book of Daniel and Revelation is no longer an issue.   We have trivialized the name of God, and now we are well on the way to rendering the message of Jesus Christ impotent.