-- Table structure for table `wped_posts`
--

CREATE TABLE `wped_posts` (
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  `post_excerpt` text COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
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  `ping_status` varchar(20) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT 'open',
  `post_password` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `post_name` varchar(200) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `to_ping` text COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `pinged` text COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `post_modified` datetime NOT NULL DEFAULT '0000-00-00 00:00:00',
  `post_modified_gmt` datetime NOT NULL DEFAULT '0000-00-00 00:00:00',
  `post_content_filtered` longtext COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `post_parent` bigint(20) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
  `guid` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
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  `post_type` varchar(20) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT 'post',
  `post_mime_type` varchar(100) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `comment_count` bigint(20) NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
  PRIMARY KEY (`ID`),
  KEY `post_name` (`post_name`(191)),
  KEY `type_status_date` (`post_type`,`post_status`,`post_date`,`ID`),
  KEY `post_parent` (`post_parent`),
  KEY `post_author` (`post_author`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM AUTO_INCREMENT=100524 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

--
-- Dumping data for table `wped_posts`
--

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11:08:17','',3310,'https://expound.org.za/3310-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99353,1,'2019-07-07 14:53:28','2019-07-07 12:53:28','<img class=\"alignnone wp-image-99356 size-full\" src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/bride-bread.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" />\n\nIn seeking to address the framing question the point of departure is to problematize the binary interpretation of biblical texts that seeks to say its either A or B. It could be AB or K, or A and B etc. Dynamic and contextual biblical interpretation is not the same thing as attempting to “relativise” or render as subjective the objective import of scripture.\n\nWith regards to the biblical bride symbol, A major problem lies in fixing the bride symbol to the church or to city exclusively when the application of the symbol is fluid and dynamic.\n\nJerusalem is the capital of the kingdom (dominion) of God (Christ). The problem with equating Jerusalem with the bride across all contexts is in that in Rev 21 it is the Kingship of Christ over the entire universe, and not just his groom status over the earthly bride; that is being established. His death on the cross marked a new dispensation even among unfallen intelligent beings as his death brought to light to the entire universe the true malicious and treacherous character and operative of Satan.\n\nTo the angels and the unfallen worlds the cry, “It is finished,” had a deep significance. It was for them as well as for us that the great work of redemption had been accomplished. They with us share the fruits of Christ\'s victory. DA 758.2\n\nSo the city is thus a perfect epitome of universal dominion, the great controversy plays out for the great part on planet earth yet it has cosmic ramifications. Angels and other beings have been watching keenly.\n\nOn that grand scale as captured in Rev 21 the groom thus should “marry” Jerusalem as the epitome of universal rulership. In that scope the church bride-ship would be inappropriate as it would be exclusionary.\n\nNonetheless, in the context of Christ’s disposition to humanity (the church) He indeed presents Himself as the groom and the church as the bride.\n\nWe should not approach scripture with a binary mindset that says its either or. For example if we say the bride is either the church or the city then we reduce the import of scripture to suit limited interpretive theorems. Such an approach wrecks the profundity and rotundity of biblical text whose meaning is objective yet fluid and whose transcendency is not mutually exclusive to its incontrovertible immanence.\n\nThe bride is both the city and the church contingent on context and the the scope of the great controversy under spotlight in that given context.\n\nSome symbolism is categoric (very clear), yet some is implied.\n<blockquote>2 Corinthians 11:2:\nFor I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.</blockquote>\nIf Paul is “presenting” us, the church as betrothed to one Husband Christ, what are we? If Christ in this context is the husband to whom the pure virgin (the church) is being presented, what is the identity of the that being presented to Christ in this analogy? Guest? Not quite. In this context the church is the bride.\n\nConsider the following:\n<blockquote>(Ephesians 5:23-25; see EGW on ch. 7:9). God the Husband of His Church—God is the husband of His church. The church is the bride, the Lamb\'s wife. Every true believer is a part of the body of Christ. Christ regards unfaithfulness shown to Him by His people as the unfaithfulness of a wife to her husband. We are to remember that we are members of Christ\'s body (Letter 39, 1902). 7BC 985.9\nConduct Befitting the Bride of a King—The church is the bride, the Lamb\'s wife. She should keep herself pure, sanctified, holy. Never should she indulge in any foolishness; for she is the bride of a King. Yet she does not realize her exalted position. If she understood this, she would be all-glorious within (Letter 177, 1901). 7BC 986.1\n(Chs. 3:4; 7:14; 16:15.) Clean Garments—The church is the bride of Christ, and her members are to yoke up with their Leader. God warns us not to defile our garments (Letter 123a, 1898). 7BC 986.2</blockquote>\nEphesians 5:25-27\nHusbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.\n\nIt is no mere philosophical injunction that the love husbands should exude for their wives is equated to that which Christ has demonstrated for the church. The “bride-ship” or “wife-ship” of the church in this context is not only categorically established but is poignantly employed to assert the defining principles of unconditional love and selflessness.\n\nNotwithstanding the foregoing, In the following contexts the bride-ship of Jerusalem however can not be missed.\n\nRevelation 21:2\n<blockquote>And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.\n\nRevelation 22:17\nThe Spirit and the bride say, \"Come \" And let the one who hears say, \"Come \" And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.</blockquote>\nIf the both the Spirit and the Bride are saying come to the church the church can not be both the caller and the called.\nThe symbol of the city of Jerusalem as the bride is categoric in those specific contexts.\n\nTo infer that in the context of the given texts in revelation the bride is the church is to apply interpretive acrobatics.\nAnd to confute the bride-ship of the church as presented in other cited contexts is the very praxis of eisegesis. (infusing inventive meanings into scripture as apposed to gathering meaning from scripture (exegesis)).\n\nIn establishing the bride symbol as the city it is helpful to underscore that the groom is not entering a solemn union with mere gold furnished walls and celestial infrastructure. The groom’s (Christ) union with the city derives meaning only in the fundament and the constituency that Jerusalem represents. Marrying Jerusalem represents the genesis or rather the resumption of the harmonious sovereign and universal rulership. If the earthly church is not an interested party and stakeholder in that (city) establishment then the union is of no relevance to the earthly church. In the context of the bride symbol as the city, the redemptive import of that prophecy must not be eclipsed by the empty pageantry of non-salvific hemerneutics or exegesis.\nSuch parochial interpretations that relegate the station of the earthly church in the context of Rev 21 dangerously leave the church justifiably feeling like a jilted lover.\n\nSo the view that the bride is the city is sustained by the bible clearly in certain contexts as much as the view that the church is the bride is indubitably established in certain contexts.\n\nThe interpretive ballyhoo ensues when the mind attempts to systematize and intellectualize, which inevitably becomes an attempt to diffuse and to humanize.\n\nIf we can abandon the mono-dimensional binary approach and its attendant antics such as seeking to solve for X, as if the bible is a corpus of algebraic monoliths, and the associative penchant to reconcile (where there is neither conflict nor cognitive dissonance) we would be helped a great deal.\n\nThe object of the bible is redemptive and not academic. Across all dynamic employments of the bride symbol as the city or the church the salvific deliverable in never lost.\nIn both contexts the bride is subject to an unconditionally loving groom. Thus, the reader of the text must ready herself for the union either as a guest or bride.\n\nUltimately, God is in charge, truth will triumph over evil and all candidates of the future kingdom must now prepare themselves thoroughly for the grand and solemn occasion.\n\nWe should embrace the beautiful tension for example in that Jesus resurrected Himself (John 10:18), Jesus was resurrected by God the Father (Acts 2:24), the Spirit of God resurrected Jesus (Rom 8:11) and that an Angel was sent by God to resurrect Jesus. ( DA 779.2)\nThere is no conflict whatsoever in the above until one begins to attempt solving for X and fractionating the import of scripture whose transcendency is not mutually unintelligible with its immanence.','Reflections on the Symbolism of the Biblical Bride. Is it the City or the Church?','','publish','open','open','','reflections-on-the-symbolism-of-the-biblical-bride-is-it-the-city-or-the-church','','','2020-01-11 08:12:59','2020-01-11 06:12:59','',0,'https://expound.org.za/?p=99353',0,'post','',0),(99352,1,'2019-07-07 14:12:59','2019-07-07 12:12:59','','Gugulethu Nyoni','','inherit','open','closed','','gugulethu-nyoni','','','2019-07-07 14:12:59','2019-07-07 12:12:59','',0,'https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Gugulethu-Nyoni.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(99354,1,'2019-07-07 14:53:28','2019-07-07 12:53:28','In seeking to address the framing question the point of departure is to problematize the binary interpretation of biblical texts that seeks to say its either A or B. It could be AB or K, or A and B etc. Dynamic and contextual biblical interpretation is not the same thing as attempting to “relativise” or render as subjective the objective import of scripture.\n\nWith regards to the biblical bride symbol, A major problem lies in fixing the bride symbol to the church or to city exclusively when the application of the symbol is fluid and dynamic.\n\nJerusalem is the capital of the kingdom (dominion) of God (Christ). The problem with equating Jerusalem with the bride across all contexts is in that in Rev 21 it is the Kingship of Christ over the entire universe, and not just his groom status over the earthly bride; that is being established. His death on the cross marked a new dispensation even among unfallen intelligent beings as his death brought to light to the entire universe the true malicious and treacherous character and operative of Satan.\n\nTo the angels and the unfallen worlds the cry, “It is finished,” had a deep significance. It was for them as well as for us that the great work of redemption had been accomplished. They with us share the fruits of Christ\'s victory. DA 758.2\n\nSo the city is thus a perfect epitome of universal dominion, the great controversy plays out for the great part on planet earth yet it has cosmic ramifications. Angels and other beings have been watching keenly.\n\nOn that grand scale as captured in Rev 21 the groom thus should “marry” Jerusalem as the epitome of universal rulership. In that scope the church bride-ship would be inappropriate as it would be exclusionary.\n\nNonetheless, in the context of Christ’s disposition to humanity (the church) He indeed presents Himself as the groom and the church as the bride.\n\nWe should not approach scripture with a binary mindset that says its either or. For example if we say the bride is either the church or the city then we reduce the import of scripture to suit limited interpretive theorems. Such an approach wrecks the profundity and rotundity of  biblical text whose meaning is objective yet fluid and whose transcendency is not mutually exclusive to its incontrovertible immanence.\n\nThe bride is both the city and the church contingent on context and the the scope of the great controversy under spotlight in that given context.\n\nSome symbolism is categoric (very clear), yet some is implied.\n\n2 Corinthians 11:2\nFor I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.\n\nIf Paul is “presenting” us, the church as betrothed to one Husband Christ, what are we? If Christ in this context is the husband to whom the pure virgin (the church) is being presented, what is the identity of the that being presented to Christ in this analogy? Guest? Not quite. In this context the church is the bride.\n\nConsider the following:\n\n(Ephesians 5:23-25; see EGW on ch. 7:9). God the Husband of His Church—God is the husband of His church. The church is the bride, the Lamb\'s wife. Every true believer is a part of the body of Christ. Christ regards unfaithfulness shown to Him by His people as the unfaithfulness of a wife to her husband. We are to remember that we are members of Christ\'s body (Letter 39, 1902). 7BC 985.9\nConduct Befitting the Bride of a King—The church is the bride, the Lamb\'s wife. She should keep herself pure, sanctified, holy. Never should she indulge in any foolishness; for she is the bride of a King. Yet she does not realize her exalted position. If she understood this, she would be all-glorious within (Letter 177, 1901). 7BC 986.1\n(Chs. 3:4; 7:14; 16:15.) Clean Garments—The church is the bride of Christ, and her members are to yoke up with their Leader. God warns us not to defile our garments (Letter 123a, 1898). 7BC 986.2\n\nEphesians 5:25-27\nHusbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.\n\nIts no mere philosophical injunction that the love husbands should exude for their wives is equated to that which Christ has demonstrated for the church. The “bride-ship” or “wife-ship” of the church in this context is not only categorically established but is poignantly employed to assert the defining principles of unconditional love and selflessness.\n\nNotwithstanding the foregoing, In the following contexts the bride-ship of Jerusalem however can not be missed.\n\nRevelation 21:2\n\nAnd I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.\n\nRevelation 22:17\nThe Spirit and the bride say, \"Come \" And let the one who hears say, \"Come \" And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.\n\nIf the both the Spirit and the Bride are saying come to the church the church can not be both the caller and the called.\nThe symbol of the city of Jerusalem as the bride is categoric in those specific contexts.\n\nTo infer that in the context of the given texts in revelation the bride is the church is to apply interpretive acrobatics.\nAnd to confute the bride-ship of the church as presented in other cited contexts is the very praxis of eisegesis. (infusing inventive meanings into scripture as apposed to gathering meaning from scripture (exegesis)).\n\nIn establishing the bride symbol as the city it is helpful to underscore that the groom is not entering a solemn union with mere gold furnished walls and celestial infrastructure. The groom’s (Christ) union with the city derives meaning only in the fundament and the constituency that Jerusalem represent. Marrying Jerusalem represents the genesis or rather the resumption of the harmonious sovereign and universal rulership. If the earthly church is not an interested party and stakeholder in that (city) establishment then the union is of no relevance to the earthly church. In the context of the bride symbol as the city, the redemptive import of that prophecy must not be eclipsed by the empty pageantry of non-salvific hemerneutics or exegesis.\nSuch parochial interpretations that relegate the station of the earthly church in the context of Rev 21 dangerously leave the church justifiably feeling like a jilted lover.\n\nSo the view that the bride is the city is sustained by the bible clearly in certain contexts as much as the view that the church is the bride is indubitably established in certain contexts.\n\nThe interpretive ballyhoo ensues when the mind attempts to systematize and intellectualize, which inevitably becomes an attempt to diffuse and to humanize.\n\nIf we can abandon the mono-dimensional binary approach and its attendant antics such as seeking to solve for X, as if the bible is a corpus of algebraic monoliths, and the associative penchant to reconcile (where there is neither conflict nor cognitive dissonance) we would be helped a great deal.\n\nThe object of the bible is redemptive and not academic. Across all dynamic employments of the bride symbol as the city or the church the salvific deliverable in never lost.\nIn both contexts the bride is subject to an unconditionally loving groom. The bride must ready herself for the union either as a guest or bride.\n\nUltimately, God is in charge, truth will triumph over evil and all candidates of the future kingdom must now prepare themselves thoroughly for the grand and solemn occasion.\n\nWe should embrace the beautiful tension for example in that Jesus resurrected Himself (John 10:18), Jesus was resurrected by God the Father (Acts 2:24), the Spirit of God resurrected Jesus (Rom 8:11) and that an Angel was sent by God to resurrect Jesus. ( DA 779.2)\nThere is no conflict whatsoever in the above until one begins to attempt solving for X and fractionating the import of scripture whose transcendency is not mutually unintelligible with its immanence.','Reflections on the Symbolism of the Biblical Bride. Is it the City or the Church?','','inherit','closed','closed','','99353-revision-v1','','','2019-07-07 14:53:28','2019-07-07 12:53:28','',99353,'https://expound.org.za/99353-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99356,1,'2019-07-07 15:01:28','2019-07-07 13:01:28','','bride-bread','','inherit','open','closed','','bride-bread','','','2019-07-07 15:01:28','2019-07-07 13:01:28','',99353,'https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/bride-bread.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(99357,1,'2019-07-07 15:03:43','2019-07-07 13:03:43','<img class=\"alignnone wp-image-99356 size-full\" src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/bride-bread.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" />\n\nIn seeking to address the framing question the point of departure is to problematize the binary interpretation of biblical texts that seeks to say its either A or B. It could be AB or K, or A and B etc. Dynamic and contextual biblical interpretation is not the same thing as attempting to “relativise” or render as subjective the objective import of scripture.\n\nWith regards to the biblical bride symbol, A major problem lies in fixing the bride symbol to the church or to city exclusively when the application of the symbol is fluid and dynamic.\n\nJerusalem is the capital of the kingdom (dominion) of God (Christ). The problem with equating Jerusalem with the bride across all contexts is in that in Rev 21 it is the Kingship of Christ over the entire universe, and not just his groom status over the earthly bride; that is being established. His death on the cross marked a new dispensation even among unfallen intelligent beings as his death brought to light to the entire universe the true malicious and treacherous character and operative of Satan.\n\nTo the angels and the unfallen worlds the cry, “It is finished,” had a deep significance. It was for them as well as for us that the great work of redemption had been accomplished. They with us share the fruits of Christ\'s victory. DA 758.2\n\nSo the city is thus a perfect epitome of universal dominion, the great controversy plays out for the great part on planet earth yet it has cosmic ramifications. Angels and other beings have been watching keenly.\n\nOn that grand scale as captured in Rev 21 the groom thus should “marry” Jerusalem as the epitome of universal rulership. In that scope the church bride-ship would be inappropriate as it would be exclusionary.\n\nNonetheless, in the context of Christ’s disposition to humanity (the church) He indeed presents Himself as the groom and the church as the bride.\n\nWe should not approach scripture with a binary mindset that says its either or. For example if we say the bride is either the church or the city then we reduce the import of scripture to suit limited interpretive theorems. Such an approach wrecks the profundity and rotundity of biblical text whose meaning is objective yet fluid and whose transcendency is not mutually exclusive to its incontrovertible immanence.\n\nThe bride is both the city and the church contingent on context and the the scope of the great controversy under spotlight in that given context.\n\nSome symbolism is categoric (very clear), yet some is implied.\n<blockquote>2 Corinthians 11:2:\nFor I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.</blockquote>\nIf Paul is “presenting” us, the church as betrothed to one Husband Christ, what are we? If Christ in this context is the husband to whom the pure virgin (the church) is being presented, what is the identity of the that being presented to Christ in this analogy? Guest? Not quite. In this context the church is the bride.\n\nConsider the following:\n<blockquote>(Ephesians 5:23-25; see EGW on ch. 7:9). God the Husband of His Church—God is the husband of His church. The church is the bride, the Lamb\'s wife. Every true believer is a part of the body of Christ. Christ regards unfaithfulness shown to Him by His people as the unfaithfulness of a wife to her husband. We are to remember that we are members of Christ\'s body (Letter 39, 1902). 7BC 985.9\nConduct Befitting the Bride of a King—The church is the bride, the Lamb\'s wife. She should keep herself pure, sanctified, holy. Never should she indulge in any foolishness; for she is the bride of a King. Yet she does not realize her exalted position. If she understood this, she would be all-glorious within (Letter 177, 1901). 7BC 986.1\n(Chs. 3:4; 7:14; 16:15.) Clean Garments—The church is the bride of Christ, and her members are to yoke up with their Leader. God warns us not to defile our garments (Letter 123a, 1898). 7BC 986.2</blockquote>\nEphesians 5:25-27\nHusbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.\n\nIts no mere philosophical injunction that the love husbands should exude for their wives is equated to that which Christ has demonstrated for the church. The “bride-ship” or “wife-ship” of the church in this context is not only categorically established but is poignantly employed to assert the defining principles of unconditional love and selflessness.\n\nNotwithstanding the foregoing, In the following contexts the bride-ship of Jerusalem however can not be missed.\n\nRevelation 21:2\n<blockquote>And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.\n\nRevelation 22:17\nThe Spirit and the bride say, \"Come \" And let the one who hears say, \"Come \" And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.</blockquote>\nIf the both the Spirit and the Bride are saying come to the church the church can not be both the caller and the called.\nThe symbol of the city of Jerusalem as the bride is categoric in those specific contexts.\n\nTo infer that in the context of the given texts in revelation the bride is the church is to apply interpretive acrobatics.\nAnd to confute the bride-ship of the church as presented in other cited contexts is the very praxis of eisegesis. (infusing inventive meanings into scripture as apposed to gathering meaning from scripture (exegesis)).\n\nIn establishing the bride symbol as the city it is helpful to underscore that the groom is not entering a solemn union with mere gold furnished walls and celestial infrastructure. The groom’s (Christ) union with the city derives meaning only in the fundament and the constituency that Jerusalem represent. Marrying Jerusalem represents the genesis or rather the resumption of the harmonious sovereign and universal rulership. If the earthly church is not an interested party and stakeholder in that (city) establishment then the union is of no relevance to the earthly church. In the context of the bride symbol as the city, the redemptive import of that prophecy must not be eclipsed by the empty pageantry of non-salvific hemerneutics or exegesis.\nSuch parochial interpretations that relegate the station of the earthly church in the context of Rev 21 dangerously leave the church justifiably feeling like a jilted lover.\n\nSo the view that the bride is the city is sustained by the bible clearly in certain contexts as much as the view that the church is the bride is indubitably established in certain contexts.\n\nThe interpretive ballyhoo ensues when the mind attempts to systematize and intellectualize, which inevitably becomes an attempt to diffuse and to humanize.\n\nIf we can abandon the mono-dimensional binary approach and its attendant antics such as seeking to solve for X, as if the bible is a corpus of algebraic monoliths, and the associative penchant to reconcile (where there is neither conflict nor cognitive dissonance) we would be helped a great deal.\n\nThe object of the bible is redemptive and not academic. Across all dynamic employments of the bride symbol as the city or the church the salvific deliverable in never lost.\nIn both contexts the bride is subject to an unconditionally loving groom. The bride must ready herself for the union either as a guest or bride.\n\nUltimately, God is in charge, truth will triumph over evil and all candidates of the future kingdom must now prepare themselves thoroughly for the grand and solemn occasion.\n\nWe should embrace the beautiful tension for example in that Jesus resurrected Himself (John 10:18), Jesus was resurrected by God the Father (Acts 2:24), the Spirit of God resurrected Jesus (Rom 8:11) and that an Angel was sent by God to resurrect Jesus. ( DA 779.2)\nThere is no conflict whatsoever in the above until one begins to attempt solving for X and fractionating the import of scripture whose transcendency is not mutually unintelligible with its immanence.','Reflections on the Symbolism of the Biblical Bride. Is it the City or the Church?','','inherit','closed','closed','','99353-revision-v1','','','2019-07-07 15:03:43','2019-07-07 13:03:43','',99353,'https://expound.org.za/99353-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99364,1,'2019-11-17 07:06:44','2019-11-17 05:06:44','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99365} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/1102014686_univ_lsr_xl-1024x512.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99365\"/><figcaption>The Parable of the Prodigal Son</figcaption></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The parable of the prodigal son is one of the default go-to stories for Christians when we seek to underscore the unconditional love of God as immaculately epitomized by the Father in the parable.  At face value the unconditional love of the Father is the key deliverable of the story as narrated by Jesus. However, an up-close assimilation of the not only the content but the ingenuity behind the fictitious narrative illuminates the fact that while the unconditional love of the Father remains the key deliverable of the narrative, the gist of the story is not simplistically in the story in and of itself, but elsewhere. Keep reading... </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>The Parable of the Lost Son: Luke 15:11-32</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. 25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2>10 Take Aways</h2>\n<!-- /wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:list {\"ordered\":true} -->\n<ol><li>A true story requires a mere narration  without any thought investment from the story teller, a fictitious story presents thoughtful detail informed by the sensitivity of the story teller to the inner affairs of humanity. In this regard a real life story would be deficient of necessary detail to underscore the profoundness of God’s love.</li><li>The fictitious narrative gives Jesus latitude to embed detail in the story that serves to teach and assert the principle of the parable, detail that would not be guaranteed in a real life story.</li><li>The triangulation around the psychology of a rebellious and repentant son, the grumpy elderly brothers’ attitude towards the Father and the younger brother, the steadfast and unconditional love of the Father, present a profound prism which establishes the beauty of the unconditional love of God as real as the ugly estate of human rebellion, jealousy and repentance. </li><li>Christ poignantly unveils the psychology of a rebellious sinner, repentant sinner, jealous brother, not only their mere actions which would leave us conjecturing about motive and disposition, but  delves compassionately into their inner thoughts and psyches. Through parading the deep psychologies of human struggles and thought, Christ powerfully lays bare His inner thoughts, feelings and emotions as a creator:  The sum disposition of a loving God who is not far removed but rather up-close to the external and internal struggles of humanity. Christ is on a compelling pedestal to tell the story as He is God-man tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin, touched with the feeling of our infirmities. (Hebrews 4:15)</li><li>How profound is the story? it is so profound, it shouts the unconditional and amazing love of God not only through its content but more powerfully through its crafty construction and  the ingenuity behind narrative. </li><li>To grasp only the deliverable of the content of the story is to miss the bigger picture by a mile for there are many parables and real life incidents in and outside the Bible that powerfully uphold the undying love of God. The main takeaway of the story is not the story, but the motive behind the creativity and innovation of the story which is to demonstrate not only the omniscience of God but His immaculate relevance to the diverse and intricate complexes of humanity. The real essence of the story is not the story but the undying love, the compassion and all-detailed disposition of the story teller as captured not in the content of the story as it were, but in the divine construction of the story. </li><li>The intentional piecing together of the fictitious pieces of the imaginary scenario and characters to craft the parable is where the profoundness of the parable lies. The thinking behind the story, the consideration of what to include and exclude in the narrative is where lies the redemptive beauty of God and the hope for all mankind. </li><li>By default the story projects the unconditional love of the Father, however a detailed zooming in into the narrative creativity and ingenuity projects a high definition display of the closeness of God to humanity, His thoughtful concern with what we would classify as minutiae in the affairs of humanity is profoundly reassuring. Through the parable Jesus projects  demonstrable intimate knowledge and remedy for human woes of sin, rebellion, licentiousness, guilt, shame, repentance, jealous, disappointment, etc. There is nothing that we go through that shocks God, He is not even shocked by our sinfulness. His arms are ever open to meet us even at the very point where and when we are embarrassed by our failures and  have given up on ourselves. </li><li>The profundity is in the rotundity of the narrator\'s consciousness of the complex struggles, failures, frailties, regrets and the very potentials of human beings. This fact presents a radical station of a God whose disposition to humanity is not that of mere sympathy but sheer empathy, whose thrust is not merely supportive but decisively victorious.  In Jesus we have a God who is not only touched with the feeling of our infirmities but is more acquainted with our true situations more than we are, and more than we are prepared to face the fact.</li><li>Ultimately, the hope and salvation for humanity lies is not in our weak, unreliable and sometimes questionable love for God,  our hope and redemption lies not in how much we love God but in how much God loves us. We can rest assured that the foundation of our salvation is  the solid Rock, a more stable and reliable basis than what our frail humanness could ever collectively  assure. </li></ol>\n<!-- /wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\n        Romans 8:38–39\n\n                    \n            \n\n    </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“For I am sure that neither \ndeath nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to \ncome, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all \ncreation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ \nJesus our Lord.”</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','When Fiction is more Powerful than Reality: The Parable of the Prodigal Son under the Microscope','','publish','open','open','','the-parable-of-the-prodigal-son-under-the-microscope-when-fiction-is-more-powerful-than-reality','','','2020-02-11 09:39:40','2020-02-11 07:39:40','',0,'https://expound.org.za/?p=99364',0,'post','',0),(99365,1,'2019-11-17 07:06:08','2019-11-17 05:06:08','','1102014686_univ_lsr_xl','','inherit','open','closed','','1102014686_univ_lsr_xl','','','2019-11-17 07:06:08','2019-11-17 05:06:08','',99364,'https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/1102014686_univ_lsr_xl.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(99366,1,'2019-11-17 07:06:44','2019-11-17 05:06:44','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99365} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/1102014686_univ_lsr_xl-1024x512.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99365\"/><figcaption>The Parable of the Prodigal Son</figcaption></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The parable of the prodigal Son is arguably one of the default go-to stories for Christians who want to focus on the unconditional love of God as immaculately epitomized by the Father in the parable. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>The Parable of the Lost Son: Luke 15:11-32</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. 25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2>6 Take Aways</h2>\n<!-- /wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:list {\"ordered\":true} -->\n<ol><li>A true story requires a mere narration  without any thought investment from the story teller, a fictitious story presents thoughtful detail informed by the sensitivity of the story teller to the inner affairs of humanity. In this regard a real life story would be deficient of necessary detail to underscore the profoundness of God’s love.</li><li>The fictitious narrative gives Jesus latitude to embed detail in the story that serves to teach and assert the principle of the parable, detail that would not be guaranteed in a real life story.</li><li>The triangulation around the psychology of a rebellious and repentant son, the grumpy elderly brothers’ attitude towards the Father and the younger brother, the steadfast and unconditional love of the Father, present a profound prism which establishes the beauty of the unconditional love of God as real as the ugly estate of human rebellion, jealousy and repentance. </li><li>Christ poignantly unveils the psychology of a rebellious sinner, repentant sinner, jealous brother, not only their mere actions which would leave us conjecturing about motive and disposition, but  delves compassionately into their inner thoughts and psyches. Through parading the deep psychologies of human struggles and thought, Christ powerfully lays bare His inner thoughts as a creator, feelings and emotions, the sum disposition of a loving God who is not far removed but rather up-close to the external and internal struggles of humanity. Christ is on a compelling pedestal to tell the story as He is God-man tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin, touched with the feeling of our infirmities.</li><li>How profound is the story? it is so profound, it shouts the unconditional and amazing love of God not only through its content but more powerfully through its crafty construction and  the ingenuity behind narrative. </li><li>To grasp only the deliverable of the content of the story is to miss the bigger picture by a mile for there are many parables and real life incidents in and outside the Bible that powerfully uphold the undying love of God. The main takeaway of the story is not the story, but the motive behind the creativity and innovation of the story which is to demonstrate not only the omniscience of God but His immaculate relevance to the diverse and intricate complexes of humanity. The real essence of the story is not the story but the undying love, the all-detailed compassion and disposition of the story teller.</li></ol>\n<!-- /wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','When Fiction is more Powerful than Reality','','inherit','closed','closed','','99364-revision-v1','','','2019-11-17 07:06:44','2019-11-17 05:06:44','',99364,'https://expound.org.za/99364-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99367,1,'2019-11-17 07:07:35','2019-11-17 05:07:35','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99365} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/1102014686_univ_lsr_xl-1024x512.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99365\"/><figcaption>The Parable of the Prodigal Son</figcaption></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The parable of the prodigal Son is arguably one of the default go-to stories for Christians who want to focus on the unconditional love of God as immaculately epitomized by the Father in the parable. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>The Parable of the Lost Son: Luke 15:11-32</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. 25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2>6 Take Aways</h2>\n<!-- /wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:list {\"ordered\":true} -->\n<ol><li>A true story requires a mere narration  without any thought investment from the story teller, a fictitious story presents thoughtful detail informed by the sensitivity of the story teller to the inner affairs of humanity. In this regard a real life story would be deficient of necessary detail to underscore the profoundness of God’s love.</li><li>The fictitious narrative gives Jesus latitude to embed detail in the story that serves to teach and assert the principle of the parable, detail that would not be guaranteed in a real life story.</li><li>The triangulation around the psychology of a rebellious and repentant son, the grumpy elderly brothers’ attitude towards the Father and the younger brother, the steadfast and unconditional love of the Father, present a profound prism which establishes the beauty of the unconditional love of God as real as the ugly estate of human rebellion, jealousy and repentance. </li><li>Christ poignantly unveils the psychology of a rebellious sinner, repentant sinner, jealous brother, not only their mere actions which would leave us conjecturing about motive and disposition, but  delves compassionately into their inner thoughts and psyches. Through parading the deep psychologies of human struggles and thought, Christ powerfully lays bare His inner thoughts as a creator, feelings and emotions, the sum disposition of a loving God who is not far removed but rather up-close to the external and internal struggles of humanity. Christ is on a compelling pedestal to tell the story as He is God-man tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin, touched with the feeling of our infirmities. (Hebrews 4:15)</li><li>How profound is the story? it is so profound, it shouts the unconditional and amazing love of God not only through its content but more powerfully through its crafty construction and  the ingenuity behind narrative. </li><li>To grasp only the deliverable of the content of the story is to miss the bigger picture by a mile for there are many parables and real life incidents in and outside the Bible that powerfully uphold the undying love of God. The main takeaway of the story is not the story, but the motive behind the creativity and innovation of the story which is to demonstrate not only the omniscience of God but His immaculate relevance to the diverse and intricate complexes of humanity. The real essence of the story is not the story but the undying love, the all-detailed compassion and disposition of the story teller.</li></ol>\n<!-- /wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','When Fiction is more Powerful than Reality','','inherit','closed','closed','','99364-revision-v1','','','2019-11-17 07:07:35','2019-11-17 05:07:35','',99364,'https://expound.org.za/99364-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99368,1,'2019-11-17 07:14:28','2019-11-17 05:14:28','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99365} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/1102014686_univ_lsr_xl-1024x512.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99365\"/><figcaption>The Parable of the Prodigal Son</figcaption></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The parable of the prodigal Son is one of the default go-to stories for Christians when we seek to underscore the unconditional love of God as immaculately epitomized by the Father in the parable.  At face value the unconditional love of the Father is the key deliverable of the story as narrated by Jesus. However, an up-close assimilation of the not only the content but the ingenuity of the fictitious narrative illuminates the fact that while the unconditional love of the Father remains the key deliverable of the narrative, the gist of the story is not in the story but elsewhere. Keep reading. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>The Parable of the Lost Son: Luke 15:11-32</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. 25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2>6 Take Aways</h2>\n<!-- /wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:list {\"ordered\":true} -->\n<ol><li>A true story requires a mere narration  without any thought investment from the story teller, a fictitious story presents thoughtful detail informed by the sensitivity of the story teller to the inner affairs of humanity. In this regard a real life story would be deficient of necessary detail to underscore the profoundness of God’s love.</li><li>The fictitious narrative gives Jesus latitude to embed detail in the story that serves to teach and assert the principle of the parable, detail that would not be guaranteed in a real life story.</li><li>The triangulation around the psychology of a rebellious and repentant son, the grumpy elderly brothers’ attitude towards the Father and the younger brother, the steadfast and unconditional love of the Father, present a profound prism which establishes the beauty of the unconditional love of God as real as the ugly estate of human rebellion, jealousy and repentance. </li><li>Christ poignantly unveils the psychology of a rebellious sinner, repentant sinner, jealous brother, not only their mere actions which would leave us conjecturing about motive and disposition, but  delves compassionately into their inner thoughts and psyches. Through parading the deep psychologies of human struggles and thought, Christ powerfully lays bare His inner thoughts as a creator, feelings and emotions, the sum disposition of a loving God who is not far removed but rather up-close to the external and internal struggles of humanity. Christ is on a compelling pedestal to tell the story as He is God-man tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin, touched with the feeling of our infirmities. (Hebrews 4:15)</li><li>How profound is the story? it is so profound, it shouts the unconditional and amazing love of God not only through its content but more powerfully through its crafty construction and  the ingenuity behind narrative. </li><li>To grasp only the deliverable of the content of the story is to miss the bigger picture by a mile for there are many parables and real life incidents in and outside the Bible that powerfully uphold the undying love of God. The main takeaway of the story is not the story, but the motive behind the creativity and innovation of the story which is to demonstrate not only the omniscience of God but His immaculate relevance to the diverse and intricate complexes of humanity. The real essence of the story is not the story but the undying love, the all-detailed compassion and disposition of the story teller.</li></ol>\n<!-- /wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','When Fiction is more Powerful than Reality','','inherit','closed','closed','','99364-revision-v1','','','2019-11-17 07:14:28','2019-11-17 05:14:28','',99364,'https://expound.org.za/99364-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99369,1,'2019-11-17 07:15:00','2019-11-17 05:15:00','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99365} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/1102014686_univ_lsr_xl-1024x512.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99365\"/><figcaption>The Parable of the Prodigal Son</figcaption></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The parable of the prodigal Son is one of the default go-to stories for Christians when we seek to underscore the unconditional love of God as immaculately epitomized by the Father in the parable.  At face value the unconditional love of the Father is the key deliverable of the story as narrated by Jesus. However, an up-close assimilation of the not only the content but the ingenuity behind the fictitious narrative illuminates the fact that while the unconditional love of the Father remains the key deliverable of the narrative, the gist of the story is not in the story but elsewhere. Keep reading. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>The Parable of the Lost Son: Luke 15:11-32</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. 25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2>6 Take Aways</h2>\n<!-- /wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:list {\"ordered\":true} -->\n<ol><li>A true story requires a mere narration  without any thought investment from the story teller, a fictitious story presents thoughtful detail informed by the sensitivity of the story teller to the inner affairs of humanity. In this regard a real life story would be deficient of necessary detail to underscore the profoundness of God’s love.</li><li>The fictitious narrative gives Jesus latitude to embed detail in the story that serves to teach and assert the principle of the parable, detail that would not be guaranteed in a real life story.</li><li>The triangulation around the psychology of a rebellious and repentant son, the grumpy elderly brothers’ attitude towards the Father and the younger brother, the steadfast and unconditional love of the Father, present a profound prism which establishes the beauty of the unconditional love of God as real as the ugly estate of human rebellion, jealousy and repentance. </li><li>Christ poignantly unveils the psychology of a rebellious sinner, repentant sinner, jealous brother, not only their mere actions which would leave us conjecturing about motive and disposition, but  delves compassionately into their inner thoughts and psyches. Through parading the deep psychologies of human struggles and thought, Christ powerfully lays bare His inner thoughts as a creator, feelings and emotions, the sum disposition of a loving God who is not far removed but rather up-close to the external and internal struggles of humanity. Christ is on a compelling pedestal to tell the story as He is God-man tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin, touched with the feeling of our infirmities. (Hebrews 4:15)</li><li>How profound is the story? it is so profound, it shouts the unconditional and amazing love of God not only through its content but more powerfully through its crafty construction and  the ingenuity behind narrative. </li><li>To grasp only the deliverable of the content of the story is to miss the bigger picture by a mile for there are many parables and real life incidents in and outside the Bible that powerfully uphold the undying love of God. The main takeaway of the story is not the story, but the motive behind the creativity and innovation of the story which is to demonstrate not only the omniscience of God but His immaculate relevance to the diverse and intricate complexes of humanity. The real essence of the story is not the story but the undying love, the all-detailed compassion and disposition of the story teller.</li></ol>\n<!-- /wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','When Fiction is more Powerful than Reality','','inherit','closed','closed','','99364-revision-v1','','','2019-11-17 07:15:00','2019-11-17 05:15:00','',99364,'https://expound.org.za/99364-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99370,1,'2019-11-17 07:21:47','2019-11-17 05:21:47','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99365} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/1102014686_univ_lsr_xl-1024x512.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99365\"/><figcaption>The Parable of the Prodigal Son</figcaption></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The parable of the prodigal Son is one of the default go-to stories for Christians when we seek to underscore the unconditional love of God as immaculately epitomized by the Father in the parable.  At face value the unconditional love of the Father is the key deliverable of the story as narrated by Jesus. However, an up-close assimilation of the not only the content but the ingenuity behind the fictitious narrative illuminates the fact that while the unconditional love of the Father remains the key deliverable of the narrative, the gist of the story is not in the story but elsewhere. Keep reading. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>The Parable of the Lost Son: Luke 15:11-32</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. 25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2>6 Take Aways</h2>\n<!-- /wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:list {\"ordered\":true} -->\n<ol><li>A true story requires a mere narration  without any thought investment from the story teller, a fictitious story presents thoughtful detail informed by the sensitivity of the story teller to the inner affairs of humanity. In this regard a real life story would be deficient of necessary detail to underscore the profoundness of God’s love.</li><li>The fictitious narrative gives Jesus latitude to embed detail in the story that serves to teach and assert the principle of the parable, detail that would not be guaranteed in a real life story.</li><li>The triangulation around the psychology of a rebellious and repentant son, the grumpy elderly brothers’ attitude towards the Father and the younger brother, the steadfast and unconditional love of the Father, present a profound prism which establishes the beauty of the unconditional love of God as real as the ugly estate of human rebellion, jealousy and repentance. </li><li>Christ poignantly unveils the psychology of a rebellious sinner, repentant sinner, jealous brother, not only their mere actions which would leave us conjecturing about motive and disposition, but  delves compassionately into their inner thoughts and psyches. Through parading the deep psychologies of human struggles and thought, Christ powerfully lays bare His inner thoughts as a creator, feelings and emotions, the sum disposition of a loving God who is not far removed but rather up-close to the external and internal struggles of humanity. Christ is on a compelling pedestal to tell the story as He is God-man tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin, touched with the feeling of our infirmities. (Hebrews 4:15)</li><li>How profound is the story? it is so profound, it shouts the unconditional and amazing love of God not only through its content but more powerfully through its crafty construction and  the ingenuity behind narrative. </li><li>To grasp only the deliverable of the content of the story is to miss the bigger picture by a mile for there are many parables and real life incidents in and outside the Bible that powerfully uphold the undying love of God. The main takeaway of the story is not the story, but the motive behind the creativity and innovation of the story which is to demonstrate not only the omniscience of God but His immaculate relevance to the diverse and intricate complexes of humanity. The real essence of the story is not the story but the undying love, the all-detailed compassion and disposition of the story teller as captured not in the content of the story as it were, but in the divine construction of the story. The intentional piecing together of the fictitious pieces of the imaginary scenario to craft the parable is where the profoundness of the parable lies. The thinking behind the story, the consideration of what to include and exclude in the narrative is where lies the redemptive beauty of God and the hope for all mankind. </li></ol>\n<!-- /wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','When Fiction is more Powerful than Reality','','inherit','closed','closed','','99364-revision-v1','','','2019-11-17 07:21:47','2019-11-17 05:21:47','',99364,'https://expound.org.za/99364-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99371,1,'2019-11-17 07:24:06','2019-11-17 05:24:06','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99365} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/1102014686_univ_lsr_xl-1024x512.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99365\"/><figcaption>The Parable of the Prodigal Son</figcaption></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The parable of the prodigal Son is one of the default go-to stories for Christians when we seek to underscore the unconditional love of God as immaculately epitomized by the Father in the parable.  At face value the unconditional love of the Father is the key deliverable of the story as narrated by Jesus. However, an up-close assimilation of the not only the content but the ingenuity behind the fictitious narrative illuminates the fact that while the unconditional love of the Father remains the key deliverable of the narrative, the gist of the story is not in the story but elsewhere. Keep reading. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>The Parable of the Lost Son: Luke 15:11-32</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. 25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2>6 Take Aways</h2>\n<!-- /wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:list {\"ordered\":true} -->\n<ol><li>A true story requires a mere narration  without any thought investment from the story teller, a fictitious story presents thoughtful detail informed by the sensitivity of the story teller to the inner affairs of humanity. In this regard a real life story would be deficient of necessary detail to underscore the profoundness of God’s love.</li><li>The fictitious narrative gives Jesus latitude to embed detail in the story that serves to teach and assert the principle of the parable, detail that would not be guaranteed in a real life story.</li><li>The triangulation around the psychology of a rebellious and repentant son, the grumpy elderly brothers’ attitude towards the Father and the younger brother, the steadfast and unconditional love of the Father, present a profound prism which establishes the beauty of the unconditional love of God as real as the ugly estate of human rebellion, jealousy and repentance. </li><li>Christ poignantly unveils the psychology of a rebellious sinner, repentant sinner, jealous brother, not only their mere actions which would leave us conjecturing about motive and disposition, but  delves compassionately into their inner thoughts and psyches. Through parading the deep psychologies of human struggles and thought, Christ powerfully lays bare His inner thoughts as a creator, feelings and emotions, the sum disposition of a loving God who is not far removed but rather up-close to the external and internal struggles of humanity. Christ is on a compelling pedestal to tell the story as He is God-man tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin, touched with the feeling of our infirmities. (Hebrews 4:15)</li><li>How profound is the story? it is so profound, it shouts the unconditional and amazing love of God not only through its content but more powerfully through its crafty construction and  the ingenuity behind narrative. </li><li>To grasp only the deliverable of the content of the story is to miss the bigger picture by a mile for there are many parables and real life incidents in and outside the Bible that powerfully uphold the undying love of God. The main takeaway of the story is not the story, but the motive behind the creativity and innovation of the story which is to demonstrate not only the omniscience of God but His immaculate relevance to the diverse and intricate complexes of humanity. The real essence of the story is not the story but the undying love, the compassion and all-detailed disposition of the story teller as captured not in the content of the story as it were, but in the divine construction of the story. </li><li>The intentional piecing together of the fictitious pieces of the imaginary scenario and characters to craft the parable is where the profoundness of the parable lies. The thinking behind the story, the consideration of what to include and exclude in the narrative is where lies the redemptive beauty of God and the hope for all mankind. </li></ol>\n<!-- /wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','When Fiction is more Powerful than Reality','','inherit','closed','closed','','99364-revision-v1','','','2019-11-17 07:24:06','2019-11-17 05:24:06','',99364,'https://expound.org.za/99364-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99372,1,'2019-11-17 07:29:53','2019-11-17 05:29:53','<!-- wp:core-embed/youtube {\"url\":\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppEvE2DUKf4\",\"type\":\"video\",\"providerNameSlug\":\"youtube\",\"className\":\"wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppEvE2DUKf4\n</div><figcaption>The Science of Worship” is a message that underscores worship as God’s means for meeting human needs. The sermon deals with questions such as, Is God a Megalomaniac? What is Worship? Why do we need to Worship? What if we don’t worship? The message is also aimed at stimulating critical thinking about the validity and meaning of Christianity.</figcaption></figure>\n<!-- /wp:core-embed/youtube -->','Videos','','publish','closed','closed','','videos','','','2019-11-17 07:29:55','2019-11-17 05:29:55','',0,'https://expound.org.za/?page_id=99372',0,'page','',0),(99373,1,'2019-11-17 07:29:53','2019-11-17 05:29:53','<!-- wp:core-embed/youtube {\"url\":\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppEvE2DUKf4\",\"type\":\"video\",\"providerNameSlug\":\"youtube\",\"className\":\"wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppEvE2DUKf4\n</div><figcaption>The Science of Worship” is a message that underscores worship as God’s means for meeting human needs. The sermon deals with questions such as, Is God a Megalomaniac? What is Worship? Why do we need to Worship? What if we don’t worship? The message is also aimed at stimulating critical thinking about the validity and meaning of Christianity.</figcaption></figure>\n<!-- /wp:core-embed/youtube -->','Videos','','inherit','closed','closed','','99372-revision-v1','','','2019-11-17 07:29:53','2019-11-17 05:29:53','',99372,'https://expound.org.za/99372-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99374,1,'2019-11-17 07:37:12','2019-11-17 05:37:12','<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2>The Going Problem</h2>\n<!-- /wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:audio {\"id\":99375} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Devotion-The-going-problem.mp3\"></audio><figcaption>The message emphasizes the importance of completing the critical 2-step process of Christianity: that of coming and going. We come to Christ and as we are and then we go after coming. As we go, we go on Christ\'s terms.  Many Christians have no problem with coming but do have a Going Problem. </figcaption></figure>\n<!-- /wp:audio -->','Audios','','publish','closed','closed','','audios','','','2019-11-17 07:39:21','2019-11-17 05:39:21','',0,'https://expound.org.za/?page_id=99374',0,'page','',0),(99375,1,'2019-11-17 07:33:39','2019-11-17 05:33:39','','Devotion-The-going-problem','','inherit','open','closed','','devotion-the-going-problem','','','2019-11-17 07:33:39','2019-11-17 05:33:39','',99374,'https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Devotion-The-going-problem.mp3',0,'attachment','audio/mpeg',0),(99376,1,'2019-11-17 07:37:12','2019-11-17 05:37:12','<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2>The Going Problem</h2>\n<!-- /wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:audio {\"id\":99375} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Devotion-The-going-problem.mp3\"></audio><figcaption>The message emphasizes the importance of completing the critical 2-step process of Christianity: that of coming and going. We come to him and as we go after coming, we go on Christ\'s terms.  Many Christians have no problem with coming but do have a Going Problem. </figcaption></figure>\n<!-- /wp:audio -->','Audios','','inherit','closed','closed','','99374-revision-v1','','','2019-11-17 07:37:12','2019-11-17 05:37:12','',99374,'https://expound.org.za/99374-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99377,1,'2019-11-17 07:39:18','2019-11-17 05:39:18','<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2>The Going Problem</h2>\n<!-- /wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:audio {\"id\":99375} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Devotion-The-going-problem.mp3\"></audio><figcaption>The message emphasizes the importance of completing the critical 2-step process of Christianity: that of coming and going. We come to Christ and as we are and then we go after coming. As we go, we go on Christ\'s terms.  Many Christians have no problem with coming but do have a Going Problem. </figcaption></figure>\n<!-- /wp:audio -->','Audios','','inherit','closed','closed','','99374-revision-v1','','','2019-11-17 07:39:18','2019-11-17 05:39:18','',99374,'https://expound.org.za/99374-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99378,1,'2019-11-17 07:43:40','2019-11-17 05:43:40','','Content','','publish','closed','closed','','content','','','2020-12-19 14:06:04','2020-12-19 12:06:04','',0,'https://expound.org.za/?p=99378',6,'nav_menu_item','',0),(99379,1,'2019-11-17 07:43:40','2019-11-17 05:43:40','','Videos','','publish','closed','closed','','videos','','','2020-12-19 14:06:04','2020-12-19 12:06:04','',0,'https://expound.org.za/?p=99379',8,'nav_menu_item','',0),(99380,1,'2019-11-17 07:43:40','2019-11-17 05:43:40','','Audios','','publish','closed','closed','','audios','','','2020-12-19 14:06:04','2020-12-19 12:06:04','',0,'https://expound.org.za/?p=99380',9,'nav_menu_item','',0),(99381,1,'2019-11-17 07:54:05','2019-11-17 05:54:05','<!-- wp:quote -->\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><strong>In the swelling crescendo of the Christianity Decolonization mantra are laid bare the  inherent paradoxical and incurably oxymoronic fallacies of Identitarian Christianity </strong></p><cite><strong>Writes Gugulethu Nyoni</strong></cite></blockquote>\n<!-- /wp:quote -->\n\n<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99383} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/bible-164323_960_720.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99383\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->','Deconstructing  the Christianity Decolonization Discourse: A Spotlight on “Christian” Black Consciousness','','private','open','open','','deconstructing-the-christianity-decolonization-discourse-a-spotlight-on-christian-black-consciousness','','','2020-01-18 14:36:26','2020-01-18 12:36:26','',0,'https://expound.org.za/?p=99381',0,'post','',0),(99382,1,'2019-11-17 07:54:05','2019-11-17 05:54:05','<!-- wp:quote -->\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><strong>In the swelling crescendo of the Christianity Decolonization mantra are laid bare the  inherent paradoxical and incurably oxymoronic fallacies of Identitarian Christianity </strong></p><cite><strong>Writes Gugulethu Nyoni</strong></cite></blockquote>\n<!-- /wp:quote -->','Deconstructing  the Christianity Decolonization Discourse: A Spotlight on “Christian” Black Consciousness','','inherit','closed','closed','','99381-revision-v1','','','2019-11-17 07:54:05','2019-11-17 05:54:05','',99381,'https://expound.org.za/99381-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99383,1,'2019-11-17 08:01:58','2019-11-17 06:01:58','','bible-164323_960_720','','inherit','open','closed','','bible-164323_960_720','','','2019-11-17 08:01:58','2019-11-17 06:01:58','',99381,'https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/bible-164323_960_720.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(99384,1,'2019-11-17 08:02:17','2019-11-17 06:02:17','<!-- wp:quote -->\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><strong>In the swelling crescendo of the Christianity Decolonization mantra are laid bare the  inherent paradoxical and incurably oxymoronic fallacies of Identitarian Christianity </strong></p><cite><strong>Writes Gugulethu Nyoni</strong></cite></blockquote>\n<!-- /wp:quote -->\n\n<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99383} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/bible-164323_960_720.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99383\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->','Deconstructing  the Christianity Decolonization Discourse: A Spotlight on “Christian” Black Consciousness','','inherit','closed','closed','','99381-revision-v1','','','2019-11-17 08:02:17','2019-11-17 06:02:17','',99381,'https://expound.org.za/99381-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99388,1,'2020-01-05 11:17:36','2020-01-05 09:17:36','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99397} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99397\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disrupted by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause-and-effect prose yet a nuanced exploration of the details of the  events illuminates crucial insights that reveal why we keep falling for evil when we know its cancerous nature and consequences. The post presents 6 trenchant lessons from the account of the fall of humanity captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n\n\n</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>6 Lessons from the fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing of his own to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he had came with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, the hideous foe deceived Eve to believe that He had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. \nThere is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self-destruct merely by crossing the line either through premature access, misapplication, misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. It is wise to obey the creator than to allow a mere creature to serenade our senses into thinking that He has something better to offer off the gifts God has already set for the ultimate pleasure and benefit of His creatures.\n<br>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<br/> <h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies </h3>\n<b> The three half truths and whole lies: </b> <br/>\n\na) \"You will not surely die (Gen 3:4)\". The pair did not die at that self same point in time. The claim that they would not surely die was a half truth in that perverted sense but it was in essence a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) \"Your eyes will be opened\" (Gen 3:5). The pair’s eyes were opened as they, for the first time, began to see their own nakedness but as it would surely turn out, this was a half truth. In essence, from the point of the fall, human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) \"You will be like gods\" (Gen 5:5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil, a reality which until the point of sin had been a preserve of an all-knowing God. Notwithstanding, this was a whole lie considering that as the two were created in the image of God, Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience; Adam and Eve, and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being, except for Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God; is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally, all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s initiative. So while our free will is intact, we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the two diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The essence of the foregoing is that sin is the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey on their own terms, Satan owns and holds valid claims to the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are not merely excused, but essentially allotted to the Devil.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To ultimately die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you. He does not care whether he succeeds at destroying the soul himself or the soul simply self-destructs. All he cares about is that the soul is destroyed.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><p>I submit then that in this milieu, polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? Where from is your desiring conceived?</p>\n[signinlocker id=\"99519\"]</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>In the state of demon possession, the demoniac seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. It is necessitous to note that the demoniac was demon possessed as opposed to him possessing demons. Hi did not possess, he was possessed. Only when Jesus set him free did it dawn that all along he had been doing what was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life that he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. If you consider this closely, the angle illuminates the sorry and dreary state of every willful sinner who conceives slavery to sin as some form of freedom, albeit imaginary. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise and he has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">a) The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined, fatally, by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this part of the dreary offer. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures and seeks to destroy by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fruit but she did not believe that the act would indeed be wrong. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe that the wrongs are surely wrong. The only reason we can go on and do that which we clearly know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at a level of compliance and not obedience. If sin is a state, then the foregoing element is the capital, if sin is a snake this is the head, if sin is a living cell, this is the nucleus. The difference between compliance and obedience is that the former (compliance) obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while the later (obedience) is profound, it yields an unbreakable allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s remarkable and defining consternation in Genesis 39:9. Joseph exclaimed: \"How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?\". \nJoseph resisted the temptation without quoting verses or citing technicality statutes that criminalize susceptibility to the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was not technical but relational. He did not only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it was wrong. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him. He would not do it on the basis of the injury it would cause to his relationship with God. His disdain and disgust for sin had nothing to do with making it to heaven and being a good example in society. It was intrinsically deeper than the collective bearing of all those other valid extraneous reasons for not succumbing to the temptation.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 6. God does not want us to do right. He wants us to want to do right. </h3>\n\nIt is imperative to note that God has no struggle whatsoever with getting whatever He desires from His creatures. He has ordered the suns, moons and stars in their magnificent and vast tracks and all His created objects obey His will to the dot. Not withstanding, God created human beings for fellowship with Himself and for this particular reason human beings are endowed with genuine free will even at the risk of pain on the part of the creator Himself. This means that humans not only have the latitude to disobey but are verily capacitated to do so if so they please. Therefore, the program of salvation does not primarily seek to get us to do right. Firstly, God would have easily programmed humanity to simply adhere to the His explicit and implicit will without any ounce of resistance from the creatures. Secondly, God has no pleasure in a relationship of technical and impersonal compliance with any of His intelligent beings. In Isiah 1:18, He invites: \"Come now and let us reason together.\" God is not seeking any robotic allegiance from His creatures. He is an infinitely intelligent and omnipotent being and just like none of us would enjoy a robotic relationship no matter how adherent and compliant the other party would be,  God thus seeks deeper relations with His creatures. Thus, God does not merely want us to do right, He wants us to want to do right. In fact any robotic relationship is either a relationship hardly, or hardly a relationship. \nGod has no problem with a free human being who takes a decision to sin. Free moral beings are meant to do what they want. However God has a problem with a well and adequately informed human being who has been equipped to choose right and chooses a path of disobedience. It is this disjuncture and disconnect that is problematic. \n\n<br/> <p>\n<blockquote> And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:18) </blockquote>\n</p>\n<br/>\n\nThe focus of salvation is therefore the rehabilitation of the will faculty and not merely whipping into the strait and narrow way the mechanics of our erroneous deeds and acts. Free moral agents are designed to make their own decisions and to do as they please else they are not free moral beings. God as an engineer is happy to see His beings do as they please. However, God as a holy engineer who created human beings as free moral beings molded in His image, seeks to have the free moral beings not only do as they please,but He longs and aims to have His free moral beings please as He pleases. In other words, God is happy to see us live as we will, as long as our will is aligned with His perfect will. This is not for any other reason except that it is only within the will of God that the joy and happiness of humanity blossoms and is sustained and secured. Therefore, God as a creator and as an engineer is focused on fine-tuning the will premise of humanity such that out of the reclaimed and wholesome heart bursts forth sound decision making that is in harmony with the will of God and which inevitably yields right doing. This is the win-win ideal that God is aiming at, when for us human beings pleasing God equals pleasing ourselves absolutely, and does not subvert nor undercut our God-granted moral freedoms.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly: take note: The willful commission of sin is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a non committal, vulnerable, weak and vacillating christian experience that is compliant at best and yet revolting in essence, and rather gravitate to a quality of Christianity that is authentic, heartfelt and  deeply relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n\n<h2> Interested in the article PDF format? </h2> \n\n<a href=\"https://expound.org.za/download-view/an-open-letter-to-every-adventist/\"> Download Article PDF </a>\n\n<p>[/signinlocker]</p>','The Anatomy of Sin','','publish','open','open','','the-anatomy-of-sin','','','2020-05-18 21:03:30','2020-05-18 19:03:30','',0,'https://expound.org.za/?p=99388',0,'post','',0),(99387,1,'2020-01-04 08:50:11','2020-01-04 06:50:11','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99365} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/1102014686_univ_lsr_xl-1024x512.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99365\"/><figcaption>The Parable of the Prodigal Son</figcaption></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The parable of the prodigal Son is one of the default go-to stories for Christians when we seek to underscore the unconditional love of God as immaculately epitomized by the Father in the parable.  At face value the unconditional love of the Father is the key deliverable of the story as narrated by Jesus. However, an up-close assimilation of the not only the content but the ingenuity behind the fictitious narrative illuminates the fact that while the unconditional love of the Father remains the key deliverable of the narrative, the gist of the story is not in the story but elsewhere. Keep reading. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>The Parable of the Lost Son: Luke 15:11-32</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. 25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2>8 Take Aways</h2>\n<!-- /wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:list {\"ordered\":true} -->\n<ol><li>A true story requires a mere narration  without any thought investment from the story teller, a fictitious story presents thoughtful detail informed by the sensitivity of the story teller to the inner affairs of humanity. In this regard a real life story would be deficient of necessary detail to underscore the profoundness of God’s love.</li><li>The fictitious narrative gives Jesus latitude to embed detail in the story that serves to teach and assert the principle of the parable, detail that would not be guaranteed in a real life story.</li><li>The triangulation around the psychology of a rebellious and repentant son, the grumpy elderly brothers’ attitude towards the Father and the younger brother, the steadfast and unconditional love of the Father, present a profound prism which establishes the beauty of the unconditional love of God as real as the ugly estate of human rebellion, jealousy and repentance. </li><li>Christ poignantly unveils the psychology of a rebellious sinner, repentant sinner, jealous brother, not only their mere actions which would leave us conjecturing about motive and disposition, but  delves compassionately into their inner thoughts and psyches. Through parading the deep psychologies of human struggles and thought, Christ powerfully lays bare His inner thoughts as a creator, feelings and emotions, the sum disposition of a loving God who is not far removed but rather up-close to the external and internal struggles of humanity. Christ is on a compelling pedestal to tell the story as He is God-man tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin, touched with the feeling of our infirmities. (Hebrews 4:15)</li><li>How profound is the story? it is so profound, it shouts the unconditional and amazing love of God not only through its content but more powerfully through its crafty construction and  the ingenuity behind narrative. </li><li>To grasp only the deliverable of the content of the story is to miss the bigger picture by a mile for there are many parables and real life incidents in and outside the Bible that powerfully uphold the undying love of God. The main takeaway of the story is not the story, but the motive behind the creativity and innovation of the story which is to demonstrate not only the omniscience of God but His immaculate relevance to the diverse and intricate complexes of humanity. The real essence of the story is not the story but the undying love, the compassion and all-detailed disposition of the story teller as captured not in the content of the story as it were, but in the divine construction of the story. </li><li>The intentional piecing together of the fictitious pieces of the imaginary scenario and characters to craft the parable is where the profoundness of the parable lies. The thinking behind the story, the consideration of what to include and exclude in the narrative is where lies the redemptive beauty of God and the hope for all mankind. </li><li>By default the story projects the unconditional love of the Father, however a detailed zooming in into the narrative creativity and ingenuity projects a high definition display of the closeness of God to humanity, His thoughtful concern with what we would classify as minutiae in the affairs of humanity is profoundly reassuring. Through the parable Jesus projects  demonstrable intimate knowledge and remedy for human woes of sin, rebellion, licentiousness, guilt, shame, repentance, jealous, disappointment, etc. There is nothing that we go through that shocks God, He is not even shocked by our sinfulness. His arms are ever open to meet us even at the very point where we are embarrassed by our failures and  have given up on ourselves. </li><li>Ultimately, the hope and salvation for humanity is not in our weak, unreliable and sometimes questionable love for God,  our hope and redemption lies not in How much we love God but in How much God loves us. </li></ol>\n<!-- /wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\n        Romans 8:38–39\n\n                    \n            \n\n    </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“For I am sure that neither \ndeath nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to \ncome, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all \ncreation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ \nJesus our Lord.”</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','When Fiction is more Powerful than Reality','','inherit','closed','closed','','99364-revision-v1','','','2020-01-04 08:50:11','2020-01-04 06:50:11','',99364,'https://expound.org.za/99364-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99392,1,'2020-01-05 11:19:48','2020-01-05 09:19:48','<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disputed by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause and effect narrative yet a nuanced exploration of the events illuminates crucial insights that will empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lesson from fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he come with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, he deceived Eve to believe that He  had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self destruct merely by crossing the line either through, wrong timing, misapplication. misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies</h3>\n\n You will not surely die (verse 4). The pair did not die at that point which was half truth but a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) Your eyes will be opened (verse 5). The pair’s eyes were open as they for the first time began to see they won nakedness but this was a half truth since in essence human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) You will be like gods (verse 5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil which until then had been a preserve of God. However this was a lie considering that as they were created in the image of God Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience Adam and Eve and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h2> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager </h2>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being except Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s doing. So while our free will is intact we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is thus the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey, Satan owns and holds valid claims to, the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are ultimately not merely excused upon him but allotted to him.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of Sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The demoniac in the state of demon possession seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. But only when Jesus set Him free did it dawn that all along He had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures us and destroys by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:list {\"ordered\":true} -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h5>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fortuity but she did not believe it. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. Th only reason we can go on and to that which we know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s consternation” Genesis 39:9. Jospeh resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that would criminalize the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him \n<!-- /wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly, take note: Sin, Is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38. However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 11:19:48','2020-01-05 09:19:48','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99389,1,'2020-01-05 11:17:36','2020-01-05 09:17:36','<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disputed by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause and effect narrative yet a nuanced exploration of the events illuminates crucial insights that will empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lesson from fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:list {\"ordered\":true} -->\n<ol><li><strong>Satan has nothing to offer </strong><br> The devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he come with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, he deceived Eve to believe that He  had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self destruct merely by crossing the line either through, wrong timing, misapplication. misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. </li></ol>\n<!-- /wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies</strong><br> a) You will not surely die (verse 4). The pair did not die at that point which was half truth but a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) Your eyes will be opened (verse 5). The pair’s eyes were open as they for the first time began to see they won nakedness but this was a half truth since in essence human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) You will be like gods (verse 5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil which until then had been a preserve of God. However this was a lie considering that as they were created in the image of God Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience Adam and Eve and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h2> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager</h2>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being except Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s doing. So while our free will is intact we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is thus the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey, Satan owns and holds valid claims to, the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are ultimately not merely excused upon him but allotted to him.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of Sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The demoniac in the state of demon possession seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. But only when Jesus set Him free did it dawn that all along He had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures us and destroys by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:list {\"ordered\":true} -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h5>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fortuity but she did not believe it. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. Th only reason we can go on and to that which we know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s consternation” Genesis 39:9. Jospeh resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that would criminalize the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him \n<!-- /wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly, take note: Sin, Is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38. However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 11:17:36','2020-01-05 09:17:36','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99390,1,'2020-01-05 11:18:22','2020-01-05 09:18:22','<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disputed by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause and effect narrative yet a nuanced exploration of the events illuminates crucial insights that will empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lesson from fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:list {\"ordered\":true} -->\nH3> 3. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he come with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, he deceived Eve to believe that He  had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self destruct merely by crossing the line either through, wrong timing, misapplication. misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. \n<!-- /wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies</strong><br> a) You will not surely die (verse 4). The pair did not die at that point which was half truth but a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) Your eyes will be opened (verse 5). The pair’s eyes were open as they for the first time began to see they won nakedness but this was a half truth since in essence human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) You will be like gods (verse 5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil which until then had been a preserve of God. However this was a lie considering that as they were created in the image of God Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience Adam and Eve and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h2> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager</h2>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being except Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s doing. So while our free will is intact we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is thus the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey, Satan owns and holds valid claims to, the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are ultimately not merely excused upon him but allotted to him.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of Sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The demoniac in the state of demon possession seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. But only when Jesus set Him free did it dawn that all along He had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures us and destroys by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:list {\"ordered\":true} -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h5>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fortuity but she did not believe it. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. Th only reason we can go on and to that which we know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s consternation” Genesis 39:9. Jospeh resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that would criminalize the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him \n<!-- /wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly, take note: Sin, Is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38. However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 11:18:22','2020-01-05 09:18:22','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99391,1,'2020-01-05 11:18:42','2020-01-05 09:18:42','<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disputed by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause and effect narrative yet a nuanced exploration of the events illuminates crucial insights that will empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lesson from fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he come with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, he deceived Eve to believe that He  had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self destruct merely by crossing the line either through, wrong timing, misapplication. misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies</strong><br> a) You will not surely die (verse 4). The pair did not die at that point which was half truth but a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) Your eyes will be opened (verse 5). The pair’s eyes were open as they for the first time began to see they won nakedness but this was a half truth since in essence human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) You will be like gods (verse 5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil which until then had been a preserve of God. However this was a lie considering that as they were created in the image of God Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience Adam and Eve and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h2> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager</h2>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being except Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s doing. So while our free will is intact we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is thus the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey, Satan owns and holds valid claims to, the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are ultimately not merely excused upon him but allotted to him.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of Sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The demoniac in the state of demon possession seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. But only when Jesus set Him free did it dawn that all along He had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures us and destroys by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:list {\"ordered\":true} -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h5>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fortuity but she did not believe it. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. Th only reason we can go on and to that which we know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s consternation” Genesis 39:9. Jospeh resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that would criminalize the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him \n<!-- /wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly, take note: Sin, Is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38. However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 11:18:42','2020-01-05 09:18:42','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99393,1,'2020-01-05 11:19:59','2020-01-05 09:19:59','<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disputed by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause and effect narrative yet a nuanced exploration of the events illuminates crucial insights that will empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lesson from fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he come with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, he deceived Eve to believe that He  had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self destruct merely by crossing the line either through, wrong timing, misapplication. misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies</h3>\n\n You will not surely die (verse 4). The pair did not die at that point which was half truth but a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) Your eyes will be opened (verse 5). The pair’s eyes were open as they for the first time began to see they won nakedness but this was a half truth since in essence human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) You will be like gods (verse 5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil which until then had been a preserve of God. However this was a lie considering that as they were created in the image of God Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience Adam and Eve and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being except Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s doing. So while our free will is intact we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is thus the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey, Satan owns and holds valid claims to, the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are ultimately not merely excused upon him but allotted to him.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of Sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The demoniac in the state of demon possession seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. But only when Jesus set Him free did it dawn that all along He had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures us and destroys by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:list {\"ordered\":true} -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h5>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fortuity but she did not believe it. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. Th only reason we can go on and to that which we know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s consternation” Genesis 39:9. Jospeh resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that would criminalize the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him \n<!-- /wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly, take note: Sin, Is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38. However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 11:19:59','2020-01-05 09:19:59','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99394,1,'2020-01-05 11:20:31','2020-01-05 09:20:31','<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disputed by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause and effect narrative yet a nuanced exploration of the events illuminates crucial insights that will empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lesson from fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he come with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, he deceived Eve to believe that He  had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self destruct merely by crossing the line either through, wrong timing, misapplication. misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies</h3>\n\n You will not surely die (verse 4). The pair did not die at that point which was half truth but a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) Your eyes will be opened (verse 5). The pair’s eyes were open as they for the first time began to see they won nakedness but this was a half truth since in essence human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) You will be like gods (verse 5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil which until then had been a preserve of God. However this was a lie considering that as they were created in the image of God Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience Adam and Eve and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being except Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s doing. So while our free will is intact we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is thus the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey, Satan owns and holds valid claims to, the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are ultimately not merely excused upon him but allotted to him.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of Sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The demoniac in the state of demon possession seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. But only when Jesus set Him free did it dawn that all along He had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures us and destroys by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fortuity but she did not believe it. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. Th only reason we can go on and to that which we know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s consternation” Genesis 39:9. Jospeh resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that would criminalize the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly, take note: Sin, Is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38. However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 11:20:31','2020-01-05 09:20:31','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99395,1,'2020-01-05 11:26:12','2020-01-05 09:26:12','<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disputed by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause and effect narrative yet a nuanced exploration of the events illuminates crucial insights that will empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lesson from fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he come with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, he deceived Eve to believe that He  had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self destruct merely by crossing the line either through, wrong timing, misapplication. misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies</h3>\n\n You will not surely die (verse 4). The pair did not die at that point which was half truth but a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) Your eyes will be opened (verse 5). The pair’s eyes were open as they for the first time began to see they won nakedness but this was a half truth since in essence human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) You will be like gods (verse 5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil which until then had been a preserve of God. However this was a lie considering that as they were created in the image of God Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience Adam and Eve and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being except Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s doing. So while our free will is intact we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is thus the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey, Satan owns and holds valid claims to, the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are ultimately not merely excused upon him but allotted to him.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of Sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The demoniac in the state of demon possession seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. But only when Jesus set Him free did it dawn that all along He had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise, as He  has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures us and destroys by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fortuity but she did not believe it. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. Th only reason we can go on and to that which we know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s consternation” Genesis 39:9. Jospeh resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that would criminalize the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly, take note: Sin, Is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 11:26:12','2020-01-05 09:26:12','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99396,1,'2020-01-05 11:27:26','2020-01-05 09:27:26','<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disputed by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause and effect narrative yet a nuanced exploration of the events illuminates crucial insights that will empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lesson from fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he come with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, he deceived Eve to believe that He  had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self destruct merely by crossing the line either through, wrong timing, misapplication. misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies</h3>\n\n You will not surely die (verse 4). The pair did not die at that point which was half truth but a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) Your eyes will be opened (verse 5). The pair’s eyes were open as they for the first time began to see they won nakedness but this was a half truth since in essence human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) You will be like gods (verse 5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil which until then had been a preserve of God. However this was a lie considering that as they were created in the image of God Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience Adam and Eve and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being except Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s doing. So while our free will is intact we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is thus the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey, Satan owns and holds valid claims to, the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are ultimately not merely excused upon him but allotted to him.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of Sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The demoniac in the state of demon possession seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. But only when Jesus set Him free did it dawn that all along He had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise, as He  has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures us and destroys by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fortuity but she did not believe it. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. Th only reason we can go on and to that which we know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s consternation” Genesis 39:9. Jospeh resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that would criminalize the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly, take note: Sin, Is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a Christian experience that is compliant to a quality of Christianity that is relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 11:27:26','2020-01-05 09:27:26','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99397,1,'2020-01-05 11:32:58','2020-01-05 09:32:58','','ANATONY OF SIN','','inherit','open','closed','','anatony-of-sin','','','2020-01-05 11:32:58','2020-01-05 09:32:58','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(99398,1,'2020-01-05 11:34:39','2020-01-05 09:34:39','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99397} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99397\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disputed by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause and effect narrative yet a nuanced exploration of the events illuminates crucial insights that will empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lesson from fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he come with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, he deceived Eve to believe that He  had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self destruct merely by crossing the line either through, wrong timing, misapplication. misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies</h3>\n\n You will not surely die (verse 4). The pair did not die at that point which was half truth but a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) Your eyes will be opened (verse 5). The pair’s eyes were open as they for the first time began to see they won nakedness but this was a half truth since in essence human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) You will be like gods (verse 5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil which until then had been a preserve of God. However this was a lie considering that as they were created in the image of God Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience Adam and Eve and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being except Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s doing. So while our free will is intact we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is thus the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey, Satan owns and holds valid claims to, the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are ultimately not merely excused upon him but allotted to him.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of Sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The demoniac in the state of demon possession seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. But only when Jesus set Him free did it dawn that all along He had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise, as He  has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures us and destroys by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fortuity but she did not believe it. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. Th only reason we can go on and to that which we know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s consternation” Genesis 39:9. Jospeh resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that would criminalize the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly, take note: Sin, Is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a Christian experience that is compliant to a quality of Christianity that is relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 11:34:39','2020-01-05 09:34:39','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99399,1,'2020-01-05 11:35:24','2020-01-05 09:35:24','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99397} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99397\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disputed by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause and effect narrative yet a nuanced exploration of the events illuminates crucial insights that will empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lessons from the fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he come with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, he deceived Eve to believe that He  had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self destruct merely by crossing the line either through, wrong timing, misapplication. misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies</h3>\n\n You will not surely die (verse 4). The pair did not die at that point which was half truth but a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) Your eyes will be opened (verse 5). The pair’s eyes were open as they for the first time began to see they won nakedness but this was a half truth since in essence human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) You will be like gods (verse 5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil which until then had been a preserve of God. However this was a lie considering that as they were created in the image of God Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience Adam and Eve and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being except Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s doing. So while our free will is intact we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is thus the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey, Satan owns and holds valid claims to, the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are ultimately not merely excused upon him but allotted to him.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of Sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The demoniac in the state of demon possession seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. But only when Jesus set Him free did it dawn that all along He had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise, as He  has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures us and destroys by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fortuity but she did not believe it. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. Th only reason we can go on and to that which we know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s consternation” Genesis 39:9. Jospeh resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that would criminalize the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly, take note: Sin, Is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a Christian experience that is compliant to a quality of Christianity that is relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 11:35:24','2020-01-05 09:35:24','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99400,1,'2020-01-05 11:36:55','2020-01-05 09:36:55','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99397} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99397\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disputed by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause and effect narrative yet a nuanced exploration of the events illuminates crucial insights that will empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lessons from the fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he come with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, he deceived Eve to believe that He  had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self destruct merely by crossing the line either through, wrong timing, misapplication. misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies</h3>\n\n You will not surely die (verse 4). The pair did not die at that point which was half truth but a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) Your eyes will be opened (verse 5). The pair’s eyes were open as they for the first time began to see they won nakedness but this was a half truth since in essence human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) You will be like gods (verse 5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil which until then had been a preserve of God. However this was a lie considering that as they were created in the image of God Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience Adam and Eve and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being except Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s doing. So while our free will is intact we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is thus the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey, Satan owns and holds valid claims to, the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are ultimately not merely excused upon him but allotted to him.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of Sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The demoniac in the state of demon possession seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. But only when Jesus set Him free did it dawn that all along He had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise and He  has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures us and destroys by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fortuity but she did not believe it. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. Th only reason we can go on and to that which we know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s consternation” Genesis 39:9. Jospeh resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that would criminalize the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly, take note: Sin, Is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a Christian experience that is compliant to a quality of Christianity that is relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 11:36:55','2020-01-05 09:36:55','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99402,1,'2020-01-05 19:31:58','2020-01-05 17:31:58','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99397} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99397\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disrupted by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause-and-effect prose yet a nuanced exploration of the details of the  events illuminates crucial insights that will surely empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lessons from the fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he had came with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, the hideous foe deceived Eve to believe that He had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self-destruct merely by crossing the line either through, premature access, misapplication, misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. It is wise to obey the creator that to allow a mere creature to seranade our senses into thinking that He has something better to offer off the gifts God has already set for the ultimate pleasure and benefit of His creatures.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies</h3>\n\n You will not surely die (verse 4). The pair did not die at that point which was half truth but a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) Your eyes will be opened (verse 5). The pair’s eyes were open as they for the first time began to see they won nakedness but this was a half truth since in essence human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) You will be like gods (verse 5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil which until then had been a preserve of God. However this was a lie considering that as they were created in the image of God Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience Adam and Eve and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now, not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being except Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God; is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally, all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s initiative. So while our free will is intact, we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is thus the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey, Satan owns and holds valid claims to, the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are ultimately not merely excused upon him; but essentially allotted to him.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? Where from is your desiring conceived?</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The demoniac in the state of demon possession seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. But only when Jesus set Him free did it dawn that all along He had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise and He has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">a) The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures us and destroys by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fortuity but she did not believe it. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. Th only reason we can go on and to that which we know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s consternation” Genesis 39:9. Jospeh resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that would criminalize the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly, take note: Sin, Is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a Christian experience that is compliant to a quality of Christianity that is relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 19:31:58','2020-01-05 17:31:58','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99405,1,'2020-01-05 20:12:32','2020-01-05 18:12:32','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99397} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99397\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disrupted by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause-and-effect prose yet a nuanced exploration of the details of the  events illuminates crucial insights that will surely empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lessons from the fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he had came with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, the hideous foe deceived Eve to believe that He had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self-destruct merely by crossing the line either through premature access, misapplication, misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. It is wise to obey the creator that to allow a mere creature to serenade our senses into thinking that He has something better to offer off the gifts God has already set for the ultimate pleasure and benefit of His creatures.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies </h3>\n<b> The three half truths and whole lies: </b>\n\na) You will not surely die (Gen 3:4). The pair did not die at that self same point in time. The claim that they won\'t surely die was a half truth that perverted sense but it was in essence a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) Your eyes will be opened (Gen 3:5). The pair’s eyes were open as they, for the first time, began to see their own nakedness but as it would surely turn out, this was a half truth. In essence, from the point of the fall, human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) You will be like gods (Gen 5:5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil, a reality which until the point of sin had been a preserve of all knowing God. Notwithstanding, this was a whole lie considering that as the two were created in the image of God, Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience; Adam and Eve, and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now, not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being, except for Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God; is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally, all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s initiative. So while our free will is intact, we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The essence of the foregoing is that sin is the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey on their own terms, Satan owns and holds valid claims to the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are not merely excused, but essentially allotted to the Devil.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To ultimately die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu, polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? Where from is your desiring conceived?</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The demoniac in the state of demon possession seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. It exigent and necessitous note that the demoniac was demon possessed as opposed to him possessing demons. He was possessed. Only when Jesus set him free did it dawn that all along he had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life that he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. If you consider this closely, this is the sorry and dreary state of every willful sinner who mistake slavery to sin as imaginary freedom. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise and he has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">a) The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this part of the dreary offer. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures and seeks to destroy by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fruit but she did not indeed believe it the act would be wrong. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. The only reason we can go on and do that which we clearly know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s remarkable and defining consternation in Genesis 39:9. Joseph resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that criminalize susceptibility to the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did not only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it was wrong. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly: take note: The willful commission of sin, is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a vulnerable, weak and vacillating Christian experience that is compliant and gravitate to a quality of Christianity that is relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 20:12:32','2020-01-05 18:12:32','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99404,1,'2020-01-05 20:07:10','2020-01-05 18:07:10','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99397} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99397\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disrupted by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause-and-effect prose yet a nuanced exploration of the details of the  events illuminates crucial insights that will surely empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lessons from the fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he had came with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, the hideous foe deceived Eve to believe that He had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self-destruct merely by crossing the line either through, premature access, misapplication, misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. It is wise to obey the creator that to allow a mere creature to seranade our senses into thinking that He has something better to offer off the gifts God has already set for the ultimate pleasure and benefit of His creatures.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies </h3>\n<b> The three half truths and whole lies: </b>\n\na) You will not surely die (Gen 3:4). The pair did not die at that self same point in time. The claim that they won\'t surely die was a half truth that perverted sense but it was in essence a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) Your eyes will be opened (Gen 3:5). The pair’s eyes were open as they, for the first time, began to see their own nakedness but as it would surely turn out, this was a half truth. In essence, from the point of the fall, human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) You will be like gods (Gen 5:5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil, a reality which until the point of sin had been a preserve of all knowing God. Notwithstanding, this was a whole lie considering that as the two were created in the image of God, Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience; Adam and Eve, and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now, not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being, except for Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God; is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally, all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s initiative. So while our free will is intact, we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The essence of the foregoing is that sin is the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey on their own terms, Satan owns and holds valid claims to the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are not merely excused, but essentially allotted to the Devil.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To ultimately die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu, polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? Where from is your desiring conceived?</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The demoniac in the state of demon possession seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. It exigent and necessitous note that the demoniac was demon possessed as opposed to him possessing demons. He was possessed. Only when Jesus set him free did it dawn that all along he had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life that he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. If you consider this closely, this is the sorry and dreary state of every willful sinner who mistake slavery to sin as imaginary freedom. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise and he has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">a) The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this part of the dreary offer. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures and seeks to destroy by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fruit but she did not indeed believe it the act would be wrong. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. The only reason we can go on and do that which we clearly know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s remarkable and defining consternation in Genesis 39:9. Joseph resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that criminalize susceptibility to the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did not only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it was wrong. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly: take note: The willful commission of sin, is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a vulnerable, weak and vacillating Christian experience that is compliant and gravitate to a quality of Christianity that is relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 20:07:10','2020-01-05 18:07:10','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99406,1,'2020-01-05 20:14:05','2020-01-05 18:14:05','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99397} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99397\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disrupted by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause-and-effect prose yet a nuanced exploration of the details of the  events illuminates crucial insights that will surely empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lessons from the fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he had came with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, the hideous foe deceived Eve to believe that He had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self-destruct merely by crossing the line either through premature access, misapplication, misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. It is wise to obey the creator that to allow a mere creature to serenade our senses into thinking that He has something better to offer off the gifts God has already set for the ultimate pleasure and benefit of His creatures.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies </h3>\n<b> The three half truths and whole lies: </b>\n\na) You will not surely die (Gen 3:4). The pair did not die at that self same point in time. The claim that they won\'t surely die was a half truth in that perverted sense but it was in essence a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) Your eyes will be opened (Gen 3:5). The pair’s eyes were open as they, for the first time, began to see their own nakedness but as it would surely turn out, this was a half truth. In essence, from the point of the fall, human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) You will be like gods (Gen 5:5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil, a reality which until the point of sin had been a preserve of all knowing God. Notwithstanding, this was a whole lie considering that as the two were created in the image of God, Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience; Adam and Eve, and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now, not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being, except for Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God; is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally, all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s initiative. So while our free will is intact, we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The essence of the foregoing is that sin is the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey on their own terms, Satan owns and holds valid claims to the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are not merely excused, but essentially allotted to the Devil.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To ultimately die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu, polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? Where from is your desiring conceived?</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The demoniac in the state of demon possession seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. It exigent and necessitous note that the demoniac was demon possessed as opposed to him possessing demons. He was possessed. Only when Jesus set him free did it dawn that all along he had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life that he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. If you consider this closely, this is the sorry and dreary state of every willful sinner who mistake slavery to sin as imaginary freedom. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise and he has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">a) The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this part of the dreary offer. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures and seeks to destroy by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fruit but she did not indeed believe it the act would be wrong. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. The only reason we can go on and do that which we clearly know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s remarkable and defining consternation in Genesis 39:9. Joseph resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that criminalize susceptibility to the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did not only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it was wrong. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly: take note: The willful commission of sin, is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a vulnerable, weak and vacillating Christian experience that is compliant and gravitate to a quality of Christianity that is relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 20:14:05','2020-01-05 18:14:05','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99407,1,'2020-01-05 20:15:49','2020-01-05 18:15:49','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99397} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99397\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disrupted by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause-and-effect prose yet a nuanced exploration of the details of the  events illuminates crucial insights that will surely empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lessons from the fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he had came with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, the hideous foe deceived Eve to believe that He had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self-destruct merely by crossing the line either through premature access, misapplication, misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. It is wise to obey the creator that to allow a mere creature to serenade our senses into thinking that He has something better to offer off the gifts God has already set for the ultimate pleasure and benefit of His creatures.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies </h3>\n<b> The three half truths and whole lies: </b>\n\na) You will not surely die (Gen 3:4). The pair did not die at that self same point in time. The claim that they won\'t surely die was a half truth in that perverted sense but it was in essence a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) Your eyes will be opened (Gen 3:5). The pair’s eyes were opened as they, for the first time, began to see their own nakedness but as it would surely turn out, this was a half truth. In essence, from the point of the fall, human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) You will be like gods (Gen 5:5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil, a reality which until the point of sin had been a preserve of all knowing God. Notwithstanding, this was a whole lie considering that as the two were created in the image of God, Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience; Adam and Eve, and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now, not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being, except for Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God; is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally, all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s initiative. So while our free will is intact, we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The essence of the foregoing is that sin is the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey on their own terms, Satan owns and holds valid claims to the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are not merely excused, but essentially allotted to the Devil.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To ultimately die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu, polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? Where from is your desiring conceived?</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The demoniac in the state of demon possession seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. It exigent and necessitous note that the demoniac was demon possessed as opposed to him possessing demons. He was possessed. Only when Jesus set him free did it dawn that all along he had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life that he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. If you consider this closely, this is the sorry and dreary state of every willful sinner who mistake slavery to sin as imaginary freedom. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise and he has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">a) The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this part of the dreary offer. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures and seeks to destroy by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fruit but she did not indeed believe it the act would be wrong. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. The only reason we can go on and do that which we clearly know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s remarkable and defining consternation in Genesis 39:9. Joseph resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that criminalize susceptibility to the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did not only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it was wrong. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly: take note: The willful commission of sin, is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a vulnerable, weak and vacillating Christian experience that is compliant and gravitate to a quality of Christianity that is relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 20:15:49','2020-01-05 18:15:49','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99408,1,'2020-01-05 20:19:10','2020-01-05 18:19:10','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99397} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99397\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disrupted by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause-and-effect prose yet a nuanced exploration of the details of the  events illuminates crucial insights that will surely empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lessons from the fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he had came with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, the hideous foe deceived Eve to believe that He had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self-destruct merely by crossing the line either through premature access, misapplication, misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. It is wise to obey the creator that to allow a mere creature to serenade our senses into thinking that He has something better to offer off the gifts God has already set for the ultimate pleasure and benefit of His creatures.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies </h3>\n<b> The three half truths and whole lies: </b>\n\na) \"You will not surely die (Gen 3:4)\". The pair did not die at that self same point in time. The claim that they won\'t surely die was a half truth in that perverted sense but it was in essence a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) \"Your eyes will be opened\" (Gen 3:5). The pair’s eyes were opened as they, for the first time, began to see their own nakedness but as it would surely turn out, this was a half truth. In essence, from the point of the fall, human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) \"You will be like gods\" (Gen 5:5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil, a reality which until the point of sin had been a preserve of all knowing God. Notwithstanding, this was a whole lie considering that as the two were created in the image of God, Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience; Adam and Eve, and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now, not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being, except for Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God; is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally, all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s initiative. So while our free will is intact, we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The essence of the foregoing is that sin is the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey on their own terms, Satan owns and holds valid claims to the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are not merely excused, but essentially allotted to the Devil.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To ultimately die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu, polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? Where from is your desiring conceived?</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The demoniac in the state of demon possession seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. It exigent and necessitous note that the demoniac was demon possessed as opposed to him possessing demons. He was possessed. Only when Jesus set him free did it dawn that all along he had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life that he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. If you consider this closely, this is the sorry and dreary state of every willful sinner who mistake slavery to sin as imaginary freedom. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise and he has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">a) The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this part of the dreary offer. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures and seeks to destroy by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fruit but she did not indeed believe it the act would be wrong. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. The only reason we can go on and do that which we clearly know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s remarkable and defining consternation in Genesis 39:9. Joseph resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that criminalize susceptibility to the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did not only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it was wrong. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly: take note: The willful commission of sin, is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a vulnerable, weak and vacillating Christian experience that is compliant and gravitate to a quality of Christianity that is relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 20:19:10','2020-01-05 18:19:10','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99409,1,'2020-01-05 20:19:42','2020-01-05 18:19:42','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99397} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99397\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disrupted by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause-and-effect prose yet a nuanced exploration of the details of the  events illuminates crucial insights that will surely empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lessons from the fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he had came with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, the hideous foe deceived Eve to believe that He had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self-destruct merely by crossing the line either through premature access, misapplication, misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. It is wise to obey the creator that to allow a mere creature to serenade our senses into thinking that He has something better to offer off the gifts God has already set for the ultimate pleasure and benefit of His creatures.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies </h3>\n<b> The three half truths and whole lies: </b>\n\na) \"You will not surely die (Gen 3:4)\". The pair did not die at that self same point in time. The claim that they won\'t surely die was a half truth in that perverted sense but it was in essence a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) \"Your eyes will be opened\" (Gen 3:5). The pair’s eyes were opened as they, for the first time, began to see their own nakedness but as it would surely turn out, this was a half truth. In essence, from the point of the fall, human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) \"You will be like gods\" (Gen 5:5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil, a reality which until the point of sin had been a preserve of an all-knowing God. Notwithstanding, this was a whole lie considering that as the two were created in the image of God, Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience; Adam and Eve, and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now, not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being, except for Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God; is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally, all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s initiative. So while our free will is intact, we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The essence of the foregoing is that sin is the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey on their own terms, Satan owns and holds valid claims to the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are not merely excused, but essentially allotted to the Devil.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To ultimately die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu, polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? Where from is your desiring conceived?</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The demoniac in the state of demon possession seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. It exigent and necessitous note that the demoniac was demon possessed as opposed to him possessing demons. He was possessed. Only when Jesus set him free did it dawn that all along he had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life that he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. If you consider this closely, this is the sorry and dreary state of every willful sinner who mistake slavery to sin as imaginary freedom. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise and he has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">a) The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this part of the dreary offer. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures and seeks to destroy by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fruit but she did not indeed believe it the act would be wrong. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. The only reason we can go on and do that which we clearly know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s remarkable and defining consternation in Genesis 39:9. Joseph resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that criminalize susceptibility to the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did not only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it was wrong. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly: take note: The willful commission of sin, is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a vulnerable, weak and vacillating Christian experience that is compliant and gravitate to a quality of Christianity that is relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 20:19:42','2020-01-05 18:19:42','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99412,1,'2020-01-05 21:05:19','2020-01-05 19:05:19','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99397} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99397\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disrupted by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause-and-effect prose yet a nuanced exploration of the details of the  events illuminates crucial insights that will surely empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lessons from the fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he had came with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, the hideous foe deceived Eve to believe that He had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self-destruct merely by crossing the line either through premature access, misapplication, misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. It is wise to obey the creator that to allow a mere creature to serenade our senses into thinking that He has something better to offer off the gifts God has already set for the ultimate pleasure and benefit of His creatures.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies </h3>\n<b> The three half truths and whole lies: </b>\n\na) \"You will not surely die (Gen 3:4)\". The pair did not die at that self same point in time. The claim that they won\'t surely die was a half truth in that perverted sense but it was in essence a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) \"Your eyes will be opened\" (Gen 3:5). The pair’s eyes were opened as they, for the first time, began to see their own nakedness but as it would surely turn out, this was a half truth. In essence, from the point of the fall, human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) \"You will be like gods\" (Gen 5:5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil, a reality which until the point of sin had been a preserve of an all-knowing God. Notwithstanding, this was a whole lie considering that as the two were created in the image of God, Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience; Adam and Eve, and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now, not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being, except for Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God; is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally, all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s initiative. So while our free will is intact, we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the two diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The essence of the foregoing is that sin is the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey on their own terms, Satan owns and holds valid claims to the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are not merely excused, but essentially allotted to the Devil.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To ultimately die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you. He does not care whether He succeeds at destroying the soul himself or the self-destructs , all He cares about is that the soul is destroyed.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu, polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? Where from is your desiring conceived?</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>In the state of demon possession, the demoniac seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. It is exigent and necessitous to note that the demoniac was demon possessed as opposed to him possessing demons. He was possessed. Only when Jesus set him free did it dawn that all along he had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life that he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. If you consider this closely, this is the sorry and dreary state of every willful sinner who conceives slavery to sin as imaginary freedom. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise and he has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">a) The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this part of the dreary offer. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures and seeks to destroy by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fruit but she did not indeed believe it the act would be wrong. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. The only reason we can go on and do that which we clearly know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s remarkable and defining consternation in Genesis 39:9. Joseph resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that criminalize susceptibility to the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did not only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it was wrong. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 6. God does not want to us to do right. He wants to want to do right. </h3>\n\nIt is imperative to note that God has no struggle whatsoever with getting whatever He wants. He has ordered the suns, moons and stars in their magnificent and vast tracks and all His created objects obey His will to the dot. Not withstanding, God created human beings for fellowship with Himself and for this particular reason human beings are endowed with genuine free will even at the risk of pain on the part of the creator Himself. This means that humans not only have the latitude to disobey but are verily capacitated to do so if so they please. The program of salvation does not seek to get us to do right. Firstly, God would have easily programmed humanity to simply adhere to the His explicit and implicit will without any ounce of resistance from the creatures. Secondly, God has no pleasure in a relationship of technical and impersonal compliance with any of His intelligent beings. In Isiah 1:18, He invites: Come now and let us reason together. God is not seeking any robotic allegiance from His creatures. He is an infinitely intelligent omnipotent being and just like none of us would enjoy a robotic relationship no matter how adherent and compliant it would be,  God thus seeks deeper relations with His creatures. Thus, God does not want us to do right, He wants us to want to do right. \nGod has no problem with a who makes decision to sin. Free moral beings are meant to do what they want. However God has a problem with a well informed sinner who has been equipped to choose right and chooses a path of disobedience. It is this disjuncture and disconnect that is problematic. The focus of salvation is therefore the rehabilitation of the will faculty and not merely whipping into the strait and narrow way the mechanics of our once off deeds and acts. Free moral agents make their own decisions and do as they please else they are not free moral beings. God as an engineer is happy to see His beings do as they please. However God as a holy engineer who created human being as free moral beings molded in His image, seeks to to have the free moral beings do as they please, as long as they please as He pleases. In other words, God is happy to see us live as we will, as long as our will is aligned with His perfect will.  Therefore, God as a creator and as an engineer is focused on fine tuning the will premise of humanity such that out of the reclaimed and wholesome heart bursts forth sound decisions in harmony with the will of God and that inevitably yield right doing. This is the win-win ideal God is aiming at, when pleasing God pleases us and does not subvert nor undercut our God-granted moral freedoms.  \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly: take note: The willful commission of sin, is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a vulnerable, weak and vacillating Christian experience that is compliant and gravitate to a quality of Christianity that is relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 21:05:19','2020-01-05 19:05:19','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99411,1,'2020-01-05 21:03:12','2020-01-05 19:03:12','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99397} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99397\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disrupted by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause-and-effect prose yet a nuanced exploration of the details of the  events illuminates crucial insights that will surely empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lessons from the fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he had came with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, the hideous foe deceived Eve to believe that He had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self-destruct merely by crossing the line either through premature access, misapplication, misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. It is wise to obey the creator that to allow a mere creature to serenade our senses into thinking that He has something better to offer off the gifts God has already set for the ultimate pleasure and benefit of His creatures.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies </h3>\n<b> The three half truths and whole lies: </b>\n\na) \"You will not surely die (Gen 3:4)\". The pair did not die at that self same point in time. The claim that they won\'t surely die was a half truth in that perverted sense but it was in essence a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) \"Your eyes will be opened\" (Gen 3:5). The pair’s eyes were opened as they, for the first time, began to see their own nakedness but as it would surely turn out, this was a half truth. In essence, from the point of the fall, human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) \"You will be like gods\" (Gen 5:5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil, a reality which until the point of sin had been a preserve of an all-knowing God. Notwithstanding, this was a whole lie considering that as the two were created in the image of God, Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience; Adam and Eve, and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now, not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being, except for Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God; is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally, all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s initiative. So while our free will is intact, we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the two diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The essence of the foregoing is that sin is the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey on their own terms, Satan owns and holds valid claims to the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are not merely excused, but essentially allotted to the Devil.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To ultimately die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you. He does not care whether He succeeds at destroying the soul himself or the self-destructs , all He cares about is that the soul is destroyed.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu, polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? Where from is your desiring conceived?</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>In the state of demon possession, the demoniac seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. It is exigent and necessitous to note that the demoniac was demon possessed as opposed to him possessing demons. He was possessed. Only when Jesus set him free did it dawn that all along he had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life that he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. If you consider this closely, this is the sorry and dreary state of every willful sinner who conceives slavery to sin as imaginary freedom. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise and he has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">a) The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this part of the dreary offer. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures and seeks to destroy by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fruit but she did not indeed believe it the act would be wrong. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. The only reason we can go on and do that which we clearly know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s remarkable and defining consternation in Genesis 39:9. Joseph resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that criminalize susceptibility to the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did not only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it was wrong. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 6. God does not want to us to do right. He wants to want to do right. </h3>\n\nIt is imperative to note that God has no struggle whatsoever with getting whatever He wants. He has ordered the suns, moons and star in the magnificent and vast tracks and all His created objects obey His will to the dot. Not withstanding, God created human beings for fellowship with Himself and for this particular reason human beings are endowed with genuine free will even at the risk of pain on the part of the creator Himself. This means that humans not only have the latitude to disobey but are verily capacitated to do so if so they please. The program of salvation does not seek to get us to do right. Firstly, God would have easily programmed humanity to simply adhere to the His explicit and implicit will without any ounce of resistance from the creatures. Secondly, God has no pleasure in a relationship of technical and impersonal compliance with any of His intelligent beings. In Isiah 1:18, He invites: Come now and let us reason together. God is not seeking any robotic allegiance from His creatures. He is an infinitely intelligent omnipotent being and just like none of us would enjoy a robotic relationship no matter how adherent and compliant it would be,  God thus seeks deeper relations with His creatures. Thus, God does not want us to do right, He wants us to want to do right. \nGod has no problem with a who makes decision to sin. Free moral beings are meant to do what they want. However God has a problem with a well informed sinner who has been equipped to choose right and chooses a path of disobedience. It is this disjuncture and disconnect that is problematic. The focus of salvation is therefore the rehabilitation of the will faculty and not merely whipping into the strait and narrow way the mechanics of our once off deeds and acts. Free moral agents make their own decisions and do as they please else they are not free moral beings. God as an engineer is happy to see His beings do as they please. However God as a holy engineer who created human being as free moral beings molded in His image, seeks to to have the free moral beings do as they please, as long as they please as He pleases. In other words, God is happy to see us live as we will, as long as our will is aligned with His perfect will.  Therefore, God as a creator and as an engineer is focused on fine tuning the will premise of humanity such that out of the reclaimed and wholesome heart bursts forth sound decisions in harmony with the will of God and that inevitably yield right doing. This is the win-win ideal God is aiming at, when pleasing God pleases us and does not subvert nor undercut our God-granted moral freedoms.  \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly: take note: The willful commission of sin, is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a vulnerable, weak and vacillating Christian experience that is compliant and gravitate to a quality of Christianity that is relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 21:03:12','2020-01-05 19:03:12','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99413,1,'2020-01-05 21:24:52','2020-01-05 19:24:52','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99397} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99397\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disrupted by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause-and-effect prose yet a nuanced exploration of the details of the  events illuminates crucial insights that will surely empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lessons from the fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he had came with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, the hideous foe deceived Eve to believe that He had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self-destruct merely by crossing the line either through premature access, misapplication, misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. It is wise to obey the creator that to allow a mere creature to serenade our senses into thinking that He has something better to offer off the gifts God has already set for the ultimate pleasure and benefit of His creatures.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies </h3>\n<b> The three half truths and whole lies: </b>\n\na) \"You will not surely die (Gen 3:4)\". The pair did not die at that self same point in time. The claim that they won\'t surely die was a half truth in that perverted sense but it was in essence a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) \"Your eyes will be opened\" (Gen 3:5). The pair’s eyes were opened as they, for the first time, began to see their own nakedness but as it would surely turn out, this was a half truth. In essence, from the point of the fall, human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) \"You will be like gods\" (Gen 5:5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil, a reality which until the point of sin had been a preserve of an all-knowing God. Notwithstanding, this was a whole lie considering that as the two were created in the image of God, Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience; Adam and Eve, and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now, not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being, except for Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God; is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally, all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s initiative. So while our free will is intact, we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the two diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The essence of the foregoing is that sin is the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey on their own terms, Satan owns and holds valid claims to the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are not merely excused, but essentially allotted to the Devil.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To ultimately die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you. He does not care whether He succeeds at destroying the soul himself or the self-destructs , all He cares about is that the soul is destroyed.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu, polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? Where from is your desiring conceived?</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>In the state of demon possession, the demoniac seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. It is exigent and necessitous to note that the demoniac was demon possessed as opposed to him possessing demons. He was possessed. Only when Jesus set him free did it dawn that all along he had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life that he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. If you consider this closely, this is the sorry and dreary state of every willful sinner who conceives slavery to sin as imaginary freedom. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise and he has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">a) The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this part of the dreary offer. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures and seeks to destroy by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fruit but she did not indeed believe it the act would be wrong. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. The only reason we can go on and do that which we clearly know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s remarkable and defining consternation in Genesis 39:9. Joseph resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that criminalize susceptibility to the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did not only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it was wrong. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 6. God does not want to us to do right. He wants to want to do right. </h3>\n\nIt is imperative to note that God has no struggle whatsoever with getting whatever He wants. He has ordered the suns, moons and stars in their magnificent and vast tracks and all His created objects obey His will to the dot. Not withstanding, God created human beings for fellowship with Himself and for this particular reason human beings are endowed with genuine free will even at the risk of pain on the part of the creator Himself. This means that humans not only have the latitude to disobey but are verily capacitated to do so if so they please. The program of salvation does not seek to get us to do right. Firstly, God would have easily programmed humanity to simply adhere to the His explicit and implicit will without any ounce of resistance from the creatures. Secondly, God has no pleasure in a relationship of technical and impersonal compliance with any of His intelligent beings. In Isiah 1:18, He invites: Come now and let us reason together. God is not seeking any robotic allegiance from His creatures. He is an infinitely intelligent omnipotent being and just like none of us would enjoy a robotic relationship no matter how adherent and compliant it would be,  God thus seeks deeper relations with His creatures. Thus, God does not want us to do right, He wants us to want to do right. In fact any robotic relationship is either a relationship hardly or hardly a relationship. \nGod has no problem with a who makes decision to sin. Free moral beings are meant to do what they want. However God has a problem with an well and adequately informed sinner who has been equipped to choose right and chooses a path of disobedience. It is this disjuncture and disconnect that is problematic. \n<blockquote> And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:18) </blockquote>\n\nThe focus of salvation is therefore the rehabilitation of the will faculty and not merely whipping into the strait and narrow way the mechanics of our erroneous deeds and acts. Free moral agents are designed to make their own decisions and do as they please else they are not free moral beings. God as an engineer is happy to see His beings do as they please. However God as a holy engineer who created human beings as free moral beings molded in His image seeks to to have the free moral beings do as they please, but not only that, He longs and aims to have His free moral beings please as He pleases. In other words, God is happy to see us live as we will, as long as our will is aligned with His perfect will. This is not for any other reason except that it is only within the will of God that the joy and happiness of humanity is sustained and secured. Therefore, God as a creator and as an engineer is focused on fine-tuning the will premise of humanity such that out of the reclaimed and wholesome heart bursts forth sound decision making in harmony with the will of God and that inevitably yields right doing. This is the win-win ideal God is aiming at, when pleasing God pleases us absolutely, and does not subvert nor undercut our God-granted moral freedoms.  \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly: take note: The willful commission of sin, is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a vulnerable, weak and vacillating Christian experience that is compliant and gravitate to a quality of Christianity that is relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 21:24:52','2020-01-05 19:24:52','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99414,1,'2020-01-05 21:28:34','2020-01-05 19:28:34','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99397} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99397\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disrupted by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause-and-effect prose yet a nuanced exploration of the details of the  events illuminates crucial insights that will surely empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lessons from the fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he had came with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, the hideous foe deceived Eve to believe that He had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self-destruct merely by crossing the line either through premature access, misapplication, misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. It is wise to obey the creator that to allow a mere creature to serenade our senses into thinking that He has something better to offer off the gifts God has already set for the ultimate pleasure and benefit of His creatures.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies </h3>\n<b> The three half truths and whole lies: </b>\n\na) \"You will not surely die (Gen 3:4)\". The pair did not die at that self same point in time. The claim that they won\'t surely die was a half truth in that perverted sense but it was in essence a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) \"Your eyes will be opened\" (Gen 3:5). The pair’s eyes were opened as they, for the first time, began to see their own nakedness but as it would surely turn out, this was a half truth. In essence, from the point of the fall, human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) \"You will be like gods\" (Gen 5:5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil, a reality which until the point of sin had been a preserve of an all-knowing God. Notwithstanding, this was a whole lie considering that as the two were created in the image of God, Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience; Adam and Eve, and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now, not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being, except for Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God; is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally, all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s initiative. So while our free will is intact, we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the two diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The essence of the foregoing is that sin is the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey on their own terms, Satan owns and holds valid claims to the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are not merely excused, but essentially allotted to the Devil.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To ultimately die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you. He does not care whether He succeeds at destroying the soul himself or the self-destructs , all He cares about is that the soul is destroyed.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu, polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? Where from is your desiring conceived?</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>In the state of demon possession, the demoniac seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. It is exigent and necessitous to note that the demoniac was demon possessed as opposed to him possessing demons. He was possessed. Only when Jesus set him free did it dawn that all along he had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life that he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. If you consider this closely, this is the sorry and dreary state of every willful sinner who conceives slavery to sin as imaginary freedom. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise and he has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">a) The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this part of the dreary offer. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures and seeks to destroy by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fruit but she did not indeed believe it the act would be wrong. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. The only reason we can go on and do that which we clearly know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s remarkable and defining consternation in Genesis 39:9. Joseph resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that criminalize susceptibility to the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did not only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it was wrong. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 6. God does not want to us to do right. He wants to want to do right. </h3>\n\nIt is imperative to note that God has no struggle whatsoever with getting whatever He wants. He has ordered the suns, moons and stars in their magnificent and vast tracks and all His created objects obey His will to the dot. Not withstanding, God created human beings for fellowship with Himself and for this particular reason human beings are endowed with genuine free will even at the risk of pain on the part of the creator Himself. This means that humans not only have the latitude to disobey but are verily capacitated to do so if so they please. The program of salvation does not seek to get us to do right. Firstly, God would have easily programmed humanity to simply adhere to the His explicit and implicit will without any ounce of resistance from the creatures. Secondly, God has no pleasure in a relationship of technical and impersonal compliance with any of His intelligent beings. In Isiah 1:18, He invites: Come now and let us reason together. God is not seeking any robotic allegiance from His creatures. He is an infinitely intelligent omnipotent being and just like none of us would enjoy a robotic relationship no matter how adherent and compliant it would be,  God thus seeks deeper relations with His creatures. Thus, God does not want us to do right, He wants us to want to do right. In fact any robotic relationship is either a relationship hardly or hardly a relationship. \nGod has no problem with a who makes decision to sin. Free moral beings are meant to do what they want. However God has a problem with an well and adequately informed sinner who has been equipped to choose right and chooses a path of disobedience. It is this disjuncture and disconnect that is problematic. \n<blockquote> And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:18) </blockquote>\n\nThe focus of salvation is therefore the rehabilitation of the will faculty and not merely whipping into the strait and narrow way the mechanics of our erroneous deeds and acts. Free moral agents are designed to make their own decisions and do as they please else they are not free moral beings. God as an engineer is happy to see His beings do as they please. However God as a holy engineer who created human beings as free moral beings molded in His image seeks to to have the free moral beings do as they please, but not only that, He longs and aims to have His free moral beings please as He pleases. In other words, God is happy to see us live as we will, as long as our will is aligned with His perfect will. This is not for any other reason except that it is only within the will of God that the joy and happiness of humanity is sustained and secured. Therefore, God as a creator and as an engineer is focused on fine-tuning the will premise of humanity such that out of the reclaimed and wholesome heart bursts forth sound decision making that is in harmony with the will of God and which inevitably yields right doing. This is the win-win ideal God is aiming at, when pleasing God pleases us absolutely, and does not subvert nor undercut our God-granted moral freedoms.  \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly: take note: The willful commission of sin, is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a vulnerable, weak and vacillating Christian experience that is compliant and gravitate to a quality of Christianity that is relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 21:28:34','2020-01-05 19:28:34','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99415,1,'2020-01-05 21:30:33','2020-01-05 19:30:33','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99397} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99397\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disrupted by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause-and-effect prose yet a nuanced exploration of the details of the  events illuminates crucial insights that will surely empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lessons from the fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he had came with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, the hideous foe deceived Eve to believe that He had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self-destruct merely by crossing the line either through premature access, misapplication, misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. It is wise to obey the creator that to allow a mere creature to serenade our senses into thinking that He has something better to offer off the gifts God has already set for the ultimate pleasure and benefit of His creatures.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies </h3>\n<b> The three half truths and whole lies: </b>\n\na) \"You will not surely die (Gen 3:4)\". The pair did not die at that self same point in time. The claim that they won\'t surely die was a half truth in that perverted sense but it was in essence a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) \"Your eyes will be opened\" (Gen 3:5). The pair’s eyes were opened as they, for the first time, began to see their own nakedness but as it would surely turn out, this was a half truth. In essence, from the point of the fall, human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) \"You will be like gods\" (Gen 5:5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil, a reality which until the point of sin had been a preserve of an all-knowing God. Notwithstanding, this was a whole lie considering that as the two were created in the image of God, Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience; Adam and Eve, and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now, not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being, except for Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God; is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally, all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s initiative. So while our free will is intact, we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the two diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The essence of the foregoing is that sin is the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey on their own terms, Satan owns and holds valid claims to the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are not merely excused, but essentially allotted to the Devil.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To ultimately die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you. He does not care whether He succeeds at destroying the soul himself or the self-destructs , all He cares about is that the soul is destroyed.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu, polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? Where from is your desiring conceived?</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>In the state of demon possession, the demoniac seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. It is exigent and necessitous to note that the demoniac was demon possessed as opposed to him possessing demons. He was possessed. Only when Jesus set him free did it dawn that all along he had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life that he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. If you consider this closely, this is the sorry and dreary state of every willful sinner who conceives slavery to sin as imaginary freedom. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise and he has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">a) The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this part of the dreary offer. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures and seeks to destroy by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fruit but she did not indeed believe it the act would be wrong. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. The only reason we can go on and do that which we clearly know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s remarkable and defining consternation in Genesis 39:9. Joseph resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that criminalize susceptibility to the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did not only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it was wrong. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 6. God does not want to us to do right. He wants to want to do right. </h3>\n\nIt is imperative to note that God has no struggle whatsoever with getting whatever He wants. He has ordered the suns, moons and stars in their magnificent and vast tracks and all His created objects obey His will to the dot. Not withstanding, God created human beings for fellowship with Himself and for this particular reason human beings are endowed with genuine free will even at the risk of pain on the part of the creator Himself. This means that humans not only have the latitude to disobey but are verily capacitated to do so if so they please. The program of salvation does not seek to get us to do right. Firstly, God would have easily programmed humanity to simply adhere to the His explicit and implicit will without any ounce of resistance from the creatures. Secondly, God has no pleasure in a relationship of technical and impersonal compliance with any of His intelligent beings. In Isiah 1:18, He invites: Come now and let us reason together. God is not seeking any robotic allegiance from His creatures. He is an infinitely intelligent omnipotent being and just like none of us would enjoy a robotic relationship no matter how adherent and compliant it would be,  God thus seeks deeper relations with His creatures. Thus, God does not want us to do right, He wants us to want to do right. In fact any robotic relationship is either a relationship hardly or hardly a relationship. \nGod has no problem with a who makes decision to sin. Free moral beings are meant to do what they want. However God has a problem with an well and adequately informed sinner who has been equipped to choose right and chooses a path of disobedience. It is this disjuncture and disconnect that is problematic. \n<blockquote> And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:18) </blockquote>\n\nThe focus of salvation is therefore the rehabilitation of the will faculty and not merely whipping into the strait and narrow way the mechanics of our erroneous deeds and acts. Free moral agents are designed to make their own decisions and do as they please else they are not free moral beings. God as an engineer is happy to see His beings do as they please. However God as a holy engineer who created human beings as free moral beings molded in His image seeks to to have the free moral beings do as they please, but not only that, He longs and aims to have His free moral beings please as He pleases. In other words, God is happy to see us live as we will, as long as our will is aligned with His perfect will. This is not for any other reason except that it is only within the will of God that the joy and happiness of humanity is sustained and secured. Therefore, God as a creator and as an engineer is focused on fine-tuning the will premise of humanity such that out of the reclaimed and wholesome heart bursts forth sound decision making that is in harmony with the will of God and which inevitably yields right doing. This is the win-win ideal God is aiming at, when pleasing God pleases us absolutely, and does not subvert nor undercut our God-granted moral freedoms.  \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly: take note: The willful commission of sin, is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a vulnerable, weak and vacillating christian experience that is compliant and gravitate to a quality of Christianity that is authentic, heartfelt and relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 21:30:33','2020-01-05 19:30:33','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99416,1,'2020-01-05 21:37:04','2020-01-05 19:37:04','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99397} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99397\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disrupted by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause-and-effect prose yet a nuanced exploration of the details of the  events illuminates crucial insights that will surely empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lessons from the fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he had came with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, the hideous foe deceived Eve to believe that He had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self-destruct merely by crossing the line either through premature access, misapplication, misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. It is wise to obey the creator that to allow a mere creature to serenade our senses into thinking that He has something better to offer off the gifts God has already set for the ultimate pleasure and benefit of His creatures.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies </h3>\n<b> The three half truths and whole lies: </b>\n\na) \"You will not surely die (Gen 3:4)\". The pair did not die at that self same point in time. The claim that they won\'t surely die was a half truth in that perverted sense but it was in essence a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) \"Your eyes will be opened\" (Gen 3:5). The pair’s eyes were opened as they, for the first time, began to see their own nakedness but as it would surely turn out, this was a half truth. In essence, from the point of the fall, human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) \"You will be like gods\" (Gen 5:5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil, a reality which until the point of sin had been a preserve of an all-knowing God. Notwithstanding, this was a whole lie considering that as the two were created in the image of God, Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience; Adam and Eve, and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now, not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being, except for Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God; is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally, all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s initiative. So while our free will is intact, we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the two diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The essence of the foregoing is that sin is the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey on their own terms, Satan owns and holds valid claims to the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are not merely excused, but essentially allotted to the Devil.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To ultimately die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you. He does not care whether He succeeds at destroying the soul himself or the self-destructs , all He cares about is that the soul is destroyed.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu, polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? Where from is your desiring conceived?</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>In the state of demon possession, the demoniac seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. It is exigent and necessitous to note that the demoniac was demon possessed as opposed to him possessing demons. He was possessed. Only when Jesus set him free did it dawn that all along he had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life that he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. If you consider this closely, this is the sorry and dreary state of every willful sinner who conceives slavery to sin as imaginary freedom. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise and he has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">a) The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this part of the dreary offer. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures and seeks to destroy by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fruit but she did not indeed believe it the act would be wrong. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. The only reason we can go on and do that which we clearly know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s remarkable and defining consternation in Genesis 39:9. Joseph resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that criminalize susceptibility to the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did not only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it was wrong. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 6. God does not want to us to do right. He wants to want to do right. </h3>\n\nIt is imperative to note that God has no struggle whatsoever with getting whatever He wants even from His creatures. He has ordered the suns, moons and stars in their magnificent and vast tracks and all His created objects obey His will to the dot. Not withstanding, God created human beings for fellowship with Himself and for this particular reason human beings are endowed with genuine free will even at the risk of pain on the part of the creator Himself. This means that humans not only have the latitude to disobey but are verily capacitated to do so if so they please. The program of salvation does not seek to get us to do right. Firstly, God would have easily programmed humanity to simply adhere to the His explicit and implicit will without any ounce of resistance from the creatures. Secondly, God has no pleasure in a relationship of technical and impersonal compliance with any of His intelligent beings. In Isiah 1:18, He invites: Come now and let us reason together. God is not seeking any robotic allegiance from His creatures. He is an infinitely intelligent omnipotent being and just like none of us would enjoy a robotic relationship no matter how adherent and compliant it would be,  God thus seeks deeper relations with His creatures. Thus, God does not want us to do right, He wants us to want to do right. In fact any robotic relationship is either a relationship hardly or hardly a relationship. \nGod has no problem with a who makes decision to sin. Free moral beings are meant to do what they want. However God has a problem with an well and adequately informed sinner who has been equipped to choose right and chooses a path of disobedience. It is this disjuncture and disconnect that is problematic. \n<blockquote> And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:18) </blockquote>\n\nThe focus of salvation is therefore the rehabilitation of the will faculty and not merely whipping into the strait and narrow way the mechanics of our erroneous deeds and acts. Free moral agents are designed to make their own decisions and do as they please else they are not free moral beings. God as an engineer is happy to see His beings do as they please. However God as a holy engineer who created human beings as free moral beings molded in His image seeks to to have the free moral beings do as they please, but not only that, He longs and aims to have His free moral beings please as He pleases. In other words, God is happy to see us live as we will, as long as our will is aligned with His perfect will. This is not for any other reason except that it is only within the will of God that the joy and happiness of humanity is sustained and secured. Therefore, God as a creator and as an engineer is focused on fine-tuning the will premise of humanity such that out of the reclaimed and wholesome heart bursts forth sound decision making that is in harmony with the will of God and which inevitably yields right doing. This is the win-win ideal God is aiming at, when pleasing God pleases us absolutely, and does not subvert nor undercut our God-granted moral freedoms.  \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly: take note: The willful commission of sin, is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a vulnerable, weak and vacillating christian experience that is compliant and gravitate to a quality of Christianity that is authentic, heartfelt and relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 21:37:04','2020-01-05 19:37:04','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99417,1,'2020-01-05 21:38:18','2020-01-05 19:38:18','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99397} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99397\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disrupted by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause-and-effect prose yet a nuanced exploration of the details of the  events illuminates crucial insights that will surely empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lessons from the fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he had came with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, the hideous foe deceived Eve to believe that He had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self-destruct merely by crossing the line either through premature access, misapplication, misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. It is wise to obey the creator that to allow a mere creature to serenade our senses into thinking that He has something better to offer off the gifts God has already set for the ultimate pleasure and benefit of His creatures.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies </h3>\n<b> The three half truths and whole lies: </b>\n\na) \"You will not surely die (Gen 3:4)\". The pair did not die at that self same point in time. The claim that they won\'t surely die was a half truth in that perverted sense but it was in essence a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) \"Your eyes will be opened\" (Gen 3:5). The pair’s eyes were opened as they, for the first time, began to see their own nakedness but as it would surely turn out, this was a half truth. In essence, from the point of the fall, human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) \"You will be like gods\" (Gen 5:5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil, a reality which until the point of sin had been a preserve of an all-knowing God. Notwithstanding, this was a whole lie considering that as the two were created in the image of God, Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience; Adam and Eve, and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now, not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being, except for Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God; is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally, all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s initiative. So while our free will is intact, we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the two diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The essence of the foregoing is that sin is the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey on their own terms, Satan owns and holds valid claims to the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are not merely excused, but essentially allotted to the Devil.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To ultimately die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you. He does not care whether He succeeds at destroying the soul himself or the self-destructs , all He cares about is that the soul is destroyed.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu, polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? Where from is your desiring conceived?</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>In the state of demon possession, the demoniac seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. It is exigent and necessitous to note that the demoniac was demon possessed as opposed to him possessing demons. He was possessed. Only when Jesus set him free did it dawn that all along he had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life that he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. If you consider this closely, this is the sorry and dreary state of every willful sinner who conceives slavery to sin as imaginary freedom. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise and he has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">a) The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this part of the dreary offer. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures and seeks to destroy by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fruit but she did not indeed believe it the act would be wrong. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. The only reason we can go on and do that which we clearly know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s remarkable and defining consternation in Genesis 39:9. Joseph resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that criminalize susceptibility to the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did not only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it was wrong. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 6. God does not want to us to do right. He wants to want to do right. </h3>\n\nIt is imperative to note that God has no struggle whatsoever with getting whatever He wants even from His creatures. He has ordered the suns, moons and stars in their magnificent and vast tracks and all His created objects obey His will to the dot. Not withstanding, God created human beings for fellowship with Himself and for this particular reason human beings are endowed with genuine free will even at the risk of pain on the part of the creator Himself. This means that humans not only have the latitude to disobey but are verily capacitated to do so if so they please. The program of salvation does not seek to get us to do right. Firstly, God would have easily programmed humanity to simply adhere to the His explicit and implicit will without any ounce of resistance from the creatures. Secondly, God has no pleasure in a relationship of technical and impersonal compliance with any of His intelligent beings. In Isiah 1:18, He invites: Come now and let us reason together. God is not seeking any robotic allegiance from His creatures. He is an infinitely intelligent and omnipotent being and just like none of us would enjoy a robotic relationship no matter how adherent and compliant it would be,  God thus seeks deeper relations with His creatures. Thus, God does not want us to do right, He wants us to want to do right. In fact any robotic relationship is either a relationship hardly or hardly a relationship. \nGod has no problem with a who makes decision to sin. Free moral beings are meant to do what they want. However God has a problem with an well and adequately informed sinner who has been equipped to choose right and chooses a path of disobedience. It is this disjuncture and disconnect that is problematic. \n<blockquote> And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:18) </blockquote>\n\nThe focus of salvation is therefore the rehabilitation of the will faculty and not merely whipping into the strait and narrow way the mechanics of our erroneous deeds and acts. Free moral agents are designed to make their own decisions and do as they please else they are not free moral beings. God as an engineer is happy to see His beings do as they please. However God as a holy engineer who created human beings as free moral beings molded in His image seeks to to have the free moral beings do as they please, but not only that, He longs and aims to have His free moral beings please as He pleases. In other words, God is happy to see us live as we will, as long as our will is aligned with His perfect will. This is not for any other reason except that it is only within the will of God that the joy and happiness of humanity is sustained and secured. Therefore, God as a creator and as an engineer is focused on fine-tuning the will premise of humanity such that out of the reclaimed and wholesome heart bursts forth sound decision making that is in harmony with the will of God and which inevitably yields right doing. This is the win-win ideal God is aiming at, when pleasing God pleases us absolutely, and does not subvert nor undercut our God-granted moral freedoms.  \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly: take note: The willful commission of sin, is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a vulnerable, weak and vacillating christian experience that is compliant and gravitate to a quality of Christianity that is authentic, heartfelt and relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 21:38:18','2020-01-05 19:38:18','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99418,1,'2020-01-05 21:42:43','2020-01-05 19:42:43','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99397} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99397\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disrupted by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause-and-effect prose yet a nuanced exploration of the details of the  events illuminates crucial insights that will surely empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lessons from the fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he had came with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, the hideous foe deceived Eve to believe that He had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self-destruct merely by crossing the line either through premature access, misapplication, misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. It is wise to obey the creator that to allow a mere creature to serenade our senses into thinking that He has something better to offer off the gifts God has already set for the ultimate pleasure and benefit of His creatures.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies </h3>\n<b> The three half truths and whole lies: </b>\n\na) \"You will not surely die (Gen 3:4)\". The pair did not die at that self same point in time. The claim that they won\'t surely die was a half truth in that perverted sense but it was in essence a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) \"Your eyes will be opened\" (Gen 3:5). The pair’s eyes were opened as they, for the first time, began to see their own nakedness but as it would surely turn out, this was a half truth. In essence, from the point of the fall, human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) \"You will be like gods\" (Gen 5:5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil, a reality which until the point of sin had been a preserve of an all-knowing God. Notwithstanding, this was a whole lie considering that as the two were created in the image of God, Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience; Adam and Eve, and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now, not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being, except for Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God; is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally, all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s initiative. So while our free will is intact, we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the two diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The essence of the foregoing is that sin is the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey on their own terms, Satan owns and holds valid claims to the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are not merely excused, but essentially allotted to the Devil.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To ultimately die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you. He does not care whether He succeeds at destroying the soul himself or the self-destructs , all He cares about is that the soul is destroyed.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu, polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? Where from is your desiring conceived?</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>In the state of demon possession, the demoniac seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. It is exigent and necessitous to note that the demoniac was demon possessed as opposed to him possessing demons. He was possessed. Only when Jesus set him free did it dawn that all along he had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life that he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. If you consider this closely, this is the sorry and dreary state of every willful sinner who conceives slavery to sin as imaginary freedom. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise and he has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">a) The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this part of the dreary offer. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures and seeks to destroy by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fruit but she did not indeed believe it the act would be wrong. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. The only reason we can go on and do that which we clearly know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s remarkable and defining consternation in Genesis 39:9. Joseph resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that criminalize susceptibility to the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did not only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it was wrong. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 6. God does not want to us to do right. He wants to want to do right. </h3>\n\nIt is imperative to note that God has no struggle whatsoever with getting whatever He wants even from His creatures. He has ordered the suns, moons and stars in their magnificent and vast tracks and all His created objects obey His will to the dot. Not withstanding, God created human beings for fellowship with Himself and for this particular reason human beings are endowed with genuine free will even at the risk of pain on the part of the creator Himself. This means that humans not only have the latitude to disobey but are verily capacitated to do so if so they please. The program of salvation does not seek to get us to do right. Firstly, God would have easily programmed humanity to simply adhere to the His explicit and implicit will without any ounce of resistance from the creatures. Secondly, God has no pleasure in a relationship of technical and impersonal compliance with any of His intelligent beings. In Isiah 1:18, He invites: Come now and let us reason together. God is not seeking any robotic allegiance from His creatures. He is an infinitely intelligent and omnipotent being and just like none of us would enjoy a robotic relationship no matter how adherent and compliant the other party would be,  God thus seeks deeper relations with His creatures. Thus, God does not merely want us to do right, He wants us to want to do right. In fact any robotic relationship is either a relationship hardly, or hardly a relationship. \nGod has no problem with a free human being who takes a decision to sin. Free moral beings are meant to do what they want. However God has a problem with a well and adequately informed human being who has been equipped to choose right and chooses a path of disobedience. It is this disjuncture and disconnect that is problematic. \n<blockquote> And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:18) </blockquote>\n\nThe focus of salvation is therefore the rehabilitation of the will faculty and not merely whipping into the strait and narrow way the mechanics of our erroneous deeds and acts. Free moral agents are designed to make their own decisions and do as they please else they are not free moral beings. God as an engineer is happy to see His beings do as they please. However God as a holy engineer who created human beings as free moral beings molded in His image, seeks to to have the free moral beings do as they please, but not only that, He longs and aims to have His free moral beings please as He pleases. In other words, God is happy to see us live as we will, as long as our will is aligned with His perfect will. This is not for any other reason except that it is only within the will of God that the joy and happiness of humanity blossoms and is sustained and secured. Therefore, God as a creator and as an engineer is focused on fine-tuning the will premise of humanity such that out of the reclaimed and wholesome heart bursts forth sound decision making that is in harmony with the will of God and which inevitably yields right doing. This is the win-win ideal that God is aiming at, when pleasing God pleases us absolutely, and does not subvert nor undercut our God-granted moral freedoms.  \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly: take note: The willful commission of sin, is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of Sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a vulnerable, weak and vacillating christian experience that is compliant and gravitate to a quality of Christianity that is authentic, heartfelt and relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 21:42:43','2020-01-05 19:42:43','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(99419,1,'2020-01-05 21:44:07','2020-01-05 19:44:07','<!-- wp:image {\"id\":99397} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https://expound.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ANATONY-OF-SIN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99397\"/></figure>\n<!-- /wp:image -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After creation the beauty and the poetry of a cosmology in sync with the desires and plans of the creator is disrupted by the misguided actions of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam. A cursory read presents a face value cause-and-effect prose yet a nuanced exploration of the details of the  events illuminates crucial insights that will surely empower us in our quest for godliness. There are profound lessons that can be drawn from the account of the fall of humanity as captured in Genesis chapter 3. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Genesis 3: 3-8</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>3 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>5 Lessons from the fall of Adam and Eve</strong></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 1. Satan has nothing to offer </h3>\n\nThe devil did not rock up with his own combo of fruits. He would have made a better argument if he had came with his own fruits that he would have created himself. However, the hideous foe deceived Eve to believe that He had a better offer  off God’s own provisions. Fact: The devil has no power to create, his destructive power lies in manipulating that which God has created. There is no form or derivative of sin that does not involve a perversion of the good that God has created. All things come from God and the devil\'s plan is to get us to self-destruct merely by crossing the line either through premature access, misapplication, misuse, or abuse of the good things God has created. It is wise to obey the creator that to allow a mere creature to serenade our senses into thinking that He has something better to offer off the gifts God has already set for the ultimate pleasure and benefit of His creatures.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 2.The Devil works with half truths which are whole lies </h3>\n<b> The three half truths and whole lies: </b>\n\na) \"You will not surely die (Gen 3:4)\". The pair did not die at that self same point in time. The claim that they won\'t surely die was a half truth in that perverted sense but it was in essence a whole lie in the sense that ultimately they died. <br> b) \"Your eyes will be opened\" (Gen 3:5). The pair’s eyes were opened as they, for the first time, began to see their own nakedness but as it would surely turn out, this was a half truth. In essence, from the point of the fall, human physiological vision deteriorated and this marked the genesis of both literal and spiritual blindness. <br> c) \"You will be like gods\" (Gen 5:5). This was a half truth in that for the first time Adam and Eve knew both good and evil, a reality which until the point of sin had been a preserve of an all-knowing God. Notwithstanding, this was a whole lie considering that as the two were created in the image of God, Adam and Eve were already like God, also through disobedience; Adam and Eve, and as all humanity would be, became less like God, in fact more unlike God.</p>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 3. The Devil is the Project Manager of All Evil </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Every time we want to do something out of sync with God’s standards we ought to understand that the devil is the arch instigator of rebellion and disobedience. Yes we have our own personal sovereignty to make decisions to determine our courses of actions as free moral beings. We even do have 100% capacity to disobey even if the devil were absent otherwise we would not be free moral beings. A free moral being not only has liberty to disobey but has the capacity to do so genuinely and thoroughly. Now, not withstanding the foregoing, in the context of the great controversy we find ourselves in, every human being, except for Adam and Eve that came from the hand of God; is birthed in iniquity and is thus born with a predisposition to sin. Additionally, all Adam’s posterity comes with an inherently evil nature the genesis of which was the Devil’s initiative. So while our free will is intact, we are not without influence from both God and Satan to exercise our free will in either of the two diametrically opposed trajectories.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The essence of the foregoing is that sin is the proprietary enterprise of Satan. While every free moral being has the capacity to disobey on their own terms, Satan owns and holds valid claims to the intellectual property and the patent of sin. This is why in the object lesson of the sanctuary all confessed sins are not merely excused, but essentially allotted to the Devil.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To ultimately die for your own sins culminates from effectively and successfully contesting Satan’s patent of sin and upholding your brand of wickedness as the groundbreaking brain child of the stellar ingenuity of your wretchedness. This is a contestation you can easily and ostensibly win because the devil will still win through not disagreeing with you. He does not care whether He succeeds at destroying the soul himself or the self-destructs , all He cares about is that the soul is destroyed.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I submit then that in this milieu, polarized by contestations of good and evil at cosmic levels; it is not enough to be conscious of what you are and what you want, it is imperative to interrogate your very want premise. In other words, why do you want what you want? What engenders your desires? Where from is your desiring conceived?</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>In the state of demon possession, the demoniac seemed to have wanted to dwell in the grave yard, to walk around naked, he had a fleeting swoop of seemingly unfettered freedom as he broke the chains that bound him. It is exigent and necessitous to note that the demoniac was demon possessed as opposed to him possessing demons. He was possessed. Only when Jesus set him free did it dawn that all along he had been doing was the bidding of another force. He had not been living a life that he desired for himself but that which the devil desired on his behalf. If you consider this closely, this is the sorry and dreary state of every willful sinner who conceives slavery to sin as imaginary freedom. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power.  He is not his own.  He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.  He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan.  While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness.  Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul.  „If the Son therefore shall make ye free, ye shall be free indeed.‟  „The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus‟ sets us „free from the law of sin and death‟” The Desire of Ages, 466.3</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Whether we acknowledge it or not, the devil is the project manager of all evil enterprise and he has reward for all who serve him:  The  thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But Jesus has come come that we might have life, and that we might have it more  abundantly. (John 10:10)</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3>  4. The biggest fraud in the Cosmos </h3>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"left\"} -->\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">a) The devil told Eve that they would be like gods through the knowledge of good and evil. He did not disclose to them that unlike God who knows both good and evil as an Omniscient God, for humanity to  know sin is to be ruined by sin. God can survive the knowledge sin but humanity can not. The devil did not disclose this part of the dreary offer. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Lesson.</strong> The devil  lures and seeks to destroy by offering  elevation without balance, altitude without aptitude,  power without character, tenacity without capacity. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 5. The nucleus of sin </h3>\n\nEve knew it was wrong to partake of the forbidden fruit but she did not indeed believe it the act would be wrong. She lived at the level of compliance and not obedience.<br> Most of us know the wrongs that are wrong, but we hardly believe their are wrong. The only reason we can go on and do that which we clearly know is wrong is that we know at an informational level it is wrong but we have not internalized to the level of commitment the fact that it is wrong. Like Eve, the biggest mistake we make, which keeps us vulnerable to fall is that we live at the level of compliance and obedience. The difference between the two is that compliance obtains for the technical satisfaction of set rules while obedience is profound, it yields an allegiance even in the absence of rules. Hence Joseph’s remarkable and defining consternation in Genesis 39:9. Joseph resisted the temptation without quoting verses  or citing technical statutes that criminalize susceptibility to the offer at hand. His operative for resisting sin was relational. He did not only know that adultery was wrong, he strongly believed it was wrong. He would rather die than do it. It disgusted him, it was unthinkable to him.\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion.  No external force is employed.  Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.  In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.  The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself” The Desire of Ages, 466.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<h3> 6. God does not want to us to do right. He wants to want to do right. </h3>\n\nIt is imperative to note that God has no struggle whatsoever with getting whatever He wants even from His creatures. He has ordered the suns, moons and stars in their magnificent and vast tracks and all His created objects obey His will to the dot. Not withstanding, God created human beings for fellowship with Himself and for this particular reason human beings are endowed with genuine free will even at the risk of pain on the part of the creator Himself. This means that humans not only have the latitude to disobey but are verily capacitated to do so if so they please. The program of salvation does not seek to get us to do right. Firstly, God would have easily programmed humanity to simply adhere to the His explicit and implicit will without any ounce of resistance from the creatures. Secondly, God has no pleasure in a relationship of technical and impersonal compliance with any of His intelligent beings. In Isiah 1:18, He invites: Come now and let us reason together. God is not seeking any robotic allegiance from His creatures. He is an infinitely intelligent and omnipotent being and just like none of us would enjoy a robotic relationship no matter how adherent and compliant the other party would be,  God thus seeks deeper relations with His creatures. Thus, God does not merely want us to do right, He wants us to want to do right. In fact any robotic relationship is either a relationship hardly, or hardly a relationship. \nGod has no problem with a free human being who takes a decision to sin. Free moral beings are meant to do what they want. However God has a problem with a well and adequately informed human being who has been equipped to choose right and chooses a path of disobedience. It is this disjuncture and disconnect that is problematic. \n<blockquote> And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:18) </blockquote>\n\nThe focus of salvation is therefore the rehabilitation of the will faculty and not merely whipping into the strait and narrow way the mechanics of our erroneous deeds and acts. Free moral agents are designed to make their own decisions and do as they please else they are not free moral beings. God as an engineer is happy to see His beings do as they please. However God as a holy engineer who created human beings as free moral beings molded in His image, seeks to to have the free moral beings do as they please, but not only that, He longs and aims to have His free moral beings please as He pleases. In other words, God is happy to see us live as we will, as long as our will is aligned with His perfect will. This is not for any other reason except that it is only within the will of God that the joy and happiness of humanity blossoms and is sustained and secured. Therefore, God as a creator and as an engineer is focused on fine-tuning the will premise of humanity such that out of the reclaimed and wholesome heart bursts forth sound decision making that is in harmony with the will of God and which inevitably yields right doing. This is the win-win ideal that God is aiming at, when pleasing God pleases us absolutely, and does not subvert nor undercut our God-granted moral freedoms.  \n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Lastly: take note: The willful commission of sin is the genesis of your end, the construction of your destruction. To sin is to self destruct. The wages of sin is death, it is not that God will kill you. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sin is more powerful than death. Death can’t separate us from God (Romans 8:38). However, Sin can, and eternally so if we do not repent and turn wholly to God. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>May we be challenged to graduate from a non committal, vulnerable, weak and vacillating christian experience that is compliant and gravitate to a quality of Christianity that is authentic, heartfelt and  deeply relational.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','The Anatomy of Sin','','inherit','closed','closed','','99388-revision-v1','','','2020-01-05 21:44:07','2020-01-05 19:44:07','',99388,'https://expound.org.za/99388-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),