| YAHWEH, the CREATOR GOD We can find Yahweh, the Creator God, in the testimony of three main witnesses. They are: God in the Creation; God in the Word; God in the Flesh. Because the Creator God is not a respecter of persons, all humans, just like Saul, will have an equal opportunity at some point in time to know Yahweh before they are offered salvation! Acts 9:1-3 Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Acts 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: 1 Timothy 2:4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Jeremiah 31:34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more. Revelation 20:4-5 And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Matthew 19:25-26 25 When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?" 26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." God has communicated to us using three types of media: 1) The physical word, the creation; 2) The written word, the scriptures; 3) The living word, the Christ. All three are interconnected and provide a witness to us about the Creator God and God's way. 1) The Creation is a Witness for Yahweh God. Yahweh God's love and faithfulness towards us are revealed through the creation. The Creator God declared that the physical creation, including even human sexual anatomy and drives, is very good! The Creator God designed this world to be a joy and great blessing to all humans. Because of the god of this world, most humans have experienced very little of this. The Creator God actually wants all humans to rightly and fully enjoy the pleasures for which they and the creation were designed. Genesis 1:31 God saw all he had made, and indeed it was very good. Evening came and morning came: the sixth day. Luke 12:32 Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Romans 15:2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. 1 John 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Genesis 1:28 God blessed them, saying to them, 'Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth... The amazing beauty and pleasures available in the creation, and our ability to sense and enjoy them, are witnesses to Yahweh God's desire for all humans to responsibly experience, not avoid, (as the adversary and some ascetics want humans to believe), all the good pleasures available in this physical life. God wants us to know the good life here so that we will have an understanding of and desire for eternal life in the future spirit domain. Psalm 16:11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. The creation reveals that the Creator God, Yahweh, loves all humans equally. They have all been given the spirit of man. They are all clothed with the physical image of the spirit house of Yahweh God. Our sensual (sight, sound etc.), emotional (love, hate etc.), and intellectual ( set goals, plan, build etc.) abilities are similar to God's. God does not have or need the sexual plumbing of either male or female humans but the best of both male and female characteristics come from the Creator God. He/She values male and female humans equally. Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 1 Corinthians 2:11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Leviticus 19:15 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour. 2 Samuel 14:14....... neither doth God respect any person: The creation, like the Creator, is very reliable. The physical, chemical and biological rules by which the creation operates, like God's way of life, are constant. Because of this we can learn about the world and record our findings for further study without having to worry that the rules determined in one generation will be different in the next generation. In the same way, the rules and promises in God's covenants will never change. Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Malachi 3:6 For I am the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. The creation was made by the creator God to be neither worshiped through selfish hedonism nor avoided through (seemingly spiritual) asceticism. It is the adversary who wants to pervert our understanding of and interaction with the creation in order to keep us cut off from the Creator God, Yahweh. The adversary wants us to believe that god is harsh, unloving and ready to condemn us if we try to enjoy our lives in this "evil" world. This is true of the god of this world but not the Creator God . 2) The Written Word of Yahweh God is a Witness. In addition to the creation, Yahweh God chose to leave a selected written historical witness of His/Her perfect judgments and actions, and human fallibility, faithlessness and self-righteousness. Yahweh God has not been surprised by any of the choices that humans have made. Yahweh God proved it by revealing the end right from the very beginning! Yahweh God selected a family of people to protect and keep this written prediction and witness. Romans 3:1-2 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? 2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. 2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: All of Yahweh God's word is inspired. The word that we have today, we have because God wants us to have it. Not all of Yahweh God's word, however, is Yahweh God's word! Let me repeat that. Not all of Yahweh God's inspired word is a written record of Yahweh God speaking Her/His will. Much of it is the documented judgments of well meaning but fallible humans. It is Yahweh God's will to document human efforts to achieve righteousness through dead works, traditions and commandments instead of faith with good works. This can be seen in the historical record of humans living in the world and under both the Moses mediated covenant and the Christ mediated covenant. Those sitting in Moses' seat tried to justify their additional laws as putting a protective fence around God's law. Yahweh God has chosen to let humans learn the hard way, that even after being given Yahweh God's law, they would not be able to achieve righteousness through their own efforts, no matter how hard they might try. Yahweh God's word and law are a witness to this truth and a witness to the difference between Yahweh God's judgment with mercy and faith and Man's judgments without mercy or faith. NKJ Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. NKJ John 7:19 "Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill Me?" NKJ John 16:2 "..... yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. They added many of their own regulations supposedly in order to either clarify or protect Yahweh God's law. God's law is a simple, concise and sufficient set of instructions concerning God's way as it should be walked by humans. It does not need to be "enhanced". NKJ Deuteronomy 4:2 "You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. It is the adversary that has inspired humans to add to God's simple and concise law, making it seem like an unbearable burden and at the same time, making it "of none effect" in terms of achieving God's goal. NKJ Matthew 15:6 ..... Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. Matthew 23:4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. Mark 7:6-9 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. 9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. God's law, not man's law masquerading as God's law, gives us the liberty to fully enjoy the creation as long as we moderate our liberty by the equation--- Love your neighbor equal to the love you have for yourself. We must also choose to do no significant harm to ourselves. NKJ Romans 13:10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. NKJ James 2:12 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. Yahweh God's inspired word reveals the tremendous difference between the fruits from the seed of living faith and the fruits from the seed of dead works. Luke 17:6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. Romans 4:13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Romans 4:5-6 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. 6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Hebrews 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Romans 4:5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Galatians 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, Yahweh God's word is a witness to God's plan, revealed from the beginning, of the perfecting of humans through faith with works. Yahweh God's word is also a witness to the vain adversary inspired human efforts to achieve righteousness through works apart from faith!!! 3) God in The Flesh |