Theology vs Revelation: Free Will (2)

By Lanny Swaim

 

Many are called, but few are chosen.

Matthew 22:14

 

The above verse of scripture follows a parable of Jesus giving an example of what the Kingdom of Heaven/God is like.

 

Imagine that your son is getting married and you send out invitations to family and friends, but they all refuse to come to the wedding.  Being very wealthy and having household employees (servants), you then send some of your servants to those you invited to give them an in person invitation, letting them know that a great wedding feast has been prepared and trying by whatever means possible to persuade them to come.

 

However, those invited continue to go about their daily business and even make light of being invited to the wedding.  A small group of these invited guests get angry that you are trying to be so persuasive and become violent, actually killing some of your servants.

 

You call law enforcement and there is a showdown with this small group of your invited guests, with some of the invited guests being killed and their property destroyed, which leaves you with no guests coming to your son’s wedding.

 

So to fill the seats at the feast table, you send some of your remaining servants into the public arena to invite total strangers to the wedding feast, regardless of their social standing, and they come, not because they are qualified to come as were your family and friends, but simply because you chose to invite them in the absence of your family and friends.

 

I hope my modern day paraphrase of Jesus’ parable makes it clear that the purpose of this parable was to show the difference in being called (invited) and chosen.  It isn’t necessary to overthink the details of the parable.  I think we should just seek to understand the general interpretation of it, which is to point out the difference in being called or chosen.

 

The chosen ones were not family or friends, and therefore didn’t meet any qualifications to be invited to the wedding feast.  They were chosen to come, not because of any choice of their own, but simply because they were available.

 

So it is with being invited to come into the Kingdom of Heaven/God.  I believe all are invited (called) to come.  However, many never receive the invitation because no one ever preaches the Kingdom to them.  Others who do receive the invitation are unable to accept it for various reasons, which Jesus points out in the parable of the sower (see Matthew 13:3-8/Mark 4:3-9/Luke 8:5-8).

 

I am convinced, that if left to our own ability to choose, no one would ever choose to enter the Kingdom.

 

I suppose there was a point when those chosen guests made the choice to actually attend the wedding feast.  They could have refused as did the family and friends.  But they were probably not wealthy people, perhaps even poor people, and to refuse an invitation to a feast was not even a consideration.  To accept a free meal, especially a very good meal, was a no-brainer.  So in a sense there was no choice on their part.

 

So it is with those chosen to enter the Kingdom of Heaven/God.  God orchestrates our lives in such a way that we have no other choice but to enter the Kingdom.  I don’t live the life I live because I want to.  I live the life I live because I have no other choice. 

 

If you are chosen, you did not do the choosing.  You were drafted.

 

While I do want to be in the Kingdom, that is only possible because He has enabled me to want to be in the Kingdom.  And I must admit, I have had numerous days when I thought it would be much easier to not be in the Kingdom; just to live and die doing whatever, like most of mankind.

 

But God has to have someone to represent Him on Earth, eventually and ultimately bringing about a convergence of Heaven and Earth.  And that’s why there are chosen ones, having nothing to do with free will, which is a subject the Bible does not address.

 

Again, as in our last teaching, I should point out that being chosen has nothing to do with an afterlife.  We are not chosen to go to Heaven one day.  We are chosen to bring Heaven to Earth.  We are chosen for service.  We are chosen for such a time as this.

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Theology vs Revelation: Free Will (3)

By Lanny Swaim

 

Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God…

Mark 1:14

 

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Jesus in John 3:3

 

The kingdom of God is within you.

Jesus in Luke 17:21

 

The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Romans 14:17

 

The kingdoms [nations] of this world are become the kingdoms [Kingdom] of our Lord [Jesus], and of his Christ [the Body of Christ]: and he [we] shall reign for ever and ever.

Revelation 11:15

 

The Bible makes it clear in the above scripture references and others that the Kingdom of God is not in Heaven, but rather is on Earth, first of all in believers, but also issuing out of believers, causing a convergence of Heaven and Earth.

 

Revelation 11:15 (above) even goes so far as to say that there will come a time when the nations of the world will become the Kingdom of God.

 

This is the Gospel that Jesus preached (see Mark 1:4 above).

 

For many, many years the Church has been focused on preaching what I often refer to as The Gospel of Personal Salvation, which is basically about getting people born again so they can go to Heaven when they die physically.

 

But Jesus clearly said in John 3:3 (above) that the purpose of being born again (born from above) is to see the Kingdom.

 

Ancient Israel was not focused on an afterlife, and there is not much in the Old Testament about an afterlife.  Their dealings with God were about the here and now, as ours should be under the New Covenant.

 

Because of the focus on an afterlife, the concept of being chosen, which we have been studying, has been seen through the lens of chosen to go to Heaven.  But we must see the concept of being chosen through the lens of chosen to see and experience the Kingdom of God here on Earth, which entails a life of service to improve life here on Earth.

 

That is the purpose of bringing people into the Kingdom.  We are actually recruiting them for a mission. If and when you can grasp that truth, you’ll find the entire Bible will read much differently than you may be accustomed to.  And your relationship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit will change, making you, like David, a person after God’s own heart.

 

We have reduced the Gospel down to getting people to say a so called sinner’s prayer (another term not found in the Bible), confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and get on the glory train to Heaven.  As a result, we’ve allowed the devil to take over the world.

 

The Greek word translated as Church in the New Testament is Ekklesia.  It literally means called out to be a governing or legislative body.  It is not a religious or spiritual word, but a political word.  The purpose for being born again is to take over the world, not by force or coercion, but by changing hearts.

 

I can assure you, as we have already studied in previous Kingdom Manna teachings, if we are truly born again and a part of the Lord’s Ekklesia, we were drafted to be a part of the mission we are on.  So called free will played no part in it.

 

Free will is an assumption born out of a false gospel.

 

If we can embrace the real gospel, which is The Gospel of the Kingdom, we will cease the foolishness of a false, fear based gospel (the concept of Heaven and Hell), and literally change the world, discipling the nations, and bringing about a convergence of Heaven and Earth.

 

Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Matthew 6:10 (see also Luke 11:2) 

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Theology vs Revelation: Free Will (4)

By Lanny Swaim

 

We’ve been studying a commonly used religious term, free will, which is really not addressed in the Bible.  What is addressed is the reality that if we are seeing and experiencing the Kingdom of God, we were chosen to do so.

 

This is the last teaching in this series on free will.  Instead of looking at the subject from a scriptural point of view, in this last teaching on the subject we’ll be looking at it from a common sense point of view.

 

To reason that our exercise of free will determines if we make it to Heaven when we physically die is preposterous.

 

Not everyone is capable of exercising free will.  There are so many things that affect the decisions we make.  Some of those things enable us to make good decisions, while other things can make it almost impossible to make good decisions.

 

Here’s one example:

 

I had an uncle who went into the army as a young man, during WWII.  He had grown up going to church, and believed in God.  Whether or not he was actually born again I don’t know, but he was basically a good person.

 

Somewhere in France in 1944, while lying in a ditch, he was hit in his upper back by a piece of shrapnel, and lived the rest of his life as a paraplegic. 

 

When I was a teenager we lived next door to him.  I would often sit with him at night and watch television.  He rarely talked about the war, and from what I have been told, for quite some time after the war he suffered from PTSD, which was never diagnosed back then.

 

One night we had watched an episode of a TV show called Combat, which was set in Europe during WWII.  The show always portrayed the Americans as doing the right thing and the Nazis as breaking all the rules of war.

 

After the show ended, my uncle looked at me and said, “It wasn’t like that.”  He then told me that they took German prisoners out behind barns and shot them.

 

Other conversations I had with my uncle made me realize that he was angry with God, probably not only for what he suffered but also for what he had to do.  I also realized that my uncle couldn’t forgive himself for what he had done.

 

While in a hospital in England after he was wounded, my uncle became good friends with a German POW in the same hospital.  He tried to persuade the German to return with him to the states, but the German wanted to return to his home in Germany, and did.

 

My uncle became friends with a German POW after having executed German POW’s.  Imagine how that would play on your mind.

 

After I was born again at the age of nineteen, I began praying for my uncle that he too would have a relationship with Jesus, find forgiveness for the things he had done, and no longer be angry with God. But it didn’t happen.

 

After my uncle’s passing I was upset that my prayers for him were not answered.  At that time I still believed the widely accepted concept of Heaven and Hell, and that if a person didn’t accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior before they took their last breath, they were destined for eternal punishment.  I also still believed we had been given free will, and that if we didn’t accept Jesus it was simply because we chose not to, and that because of that bad choice, we deserved eternal punishment.

 

But I just couldn’t accept that my uncle was in Hell.

 

He was a good and generous person, but because of his war experience he was angry with God and couldn’t forgive himself for what he had done.  My dad was his primary caregiver and when my dad died at fifty-six, my uncle added that to his reasons for being angry with God.

 

I knew what I had been taught and as a result, what I believed, but I just couldn’t accept that my uncle was now experiencing eternal punishment, after all he had suffered as a result of fighting for his country, ensuring freedom for generations to come.

 

My point is this:

 

Free will is not only false doctrine, it isn’t reality.  The choices we make in life are the result of many things; our DNA, our upbringing, our experiences, etc. 

 

The only reason anyone is able to enter the Kingdom of God is because God has drawn that person and revealed the Kingdom to him/her.  So we are not in the Kingdom because of free will, but instead because we were chosen to be in the Kingdom.

 

And why were we chosen?  Not because of being qualified or because of anything we did.  God chooses who He will simply because He has to have a people to represent Him and be like Him on Earth, in order to, in the fulness of time, bring about the restitution of all of His creation.

 

As I say over and over, accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior and being born again is not about going to Heaven.  Rather, it is about bringing Heaven to Earth.

 

The reason we have not seen and experienced a complete conversion of Heaven and Earth is because we have believed the wrong gospel.  But glory to God, at least a remnant is beginning to see the Kingdom clearly, ruling with Him, bringing about the fulfillment of Revelation 11:15.

 

The kingdoms [nations] of this world are become the kingdoms [Kingdom] of our Lord [Jesus], and of his Christ [the Body of Christ]; and he [we] shall reign for ever and ever.

 

Surely we were born for such a time as this!!!

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Theology vs Revelation: The Fall of Man

By Lanny Swaim

 

The LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Genesis 2:15-17

 

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.

Genesis 3:6

 

Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

1 Timothy 2:14

 

A theological term frequently used to describe Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit of The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, is the fall of man.  There are various doctrines concerning this event held by different Christian denominations, as well as by Islam.

 

But was it really a fall?  Or was it a scenario destined to play out as it did?

 

My intention is not to study or have a theological discussion on the various doctrines relating to this event, but is instead to share revelation I believe I have received about this event.

 

You may or may not agree with what I believe to be revelation I have received, but I would encourage you to consider what I have written and seek revelation of your own.

 

As was the case with the recent teachings on free will, to cover this subject will take more than one teaching.  My intention is not to convince you that I am right, but is instead to encourage you to seek revelation of your own and in doing so, to better get to know the God we serve.

 

An understanding of what took place in the Garden of Eden is important to our understanding of the entire Bible and of God’s plan for mankind and planet Earth.

 

In this first teaching on the subject, I want to focus on the apostle Paul’s statement to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2:14 (above).

 

Genesis 3:6 (above) informs us that Eve ate of the forbidden fruit first, and then gave some to Adam who ate of it as well. Paul told Timothy that Eve was deceived by the serpent to eat of the fruit, but that Adam was not deceived.  Adam ate of the fruit knowing full well what he was doing,

 

Have you ever wondered what would have happened to Eve had Adam not eaten of the fruit.  Would Eve, having already eaten of the fruit, have been driven out of the garden while Adam remained?  Would she maybe have died right there on the spot, leaving Adam without his wife?

 

The Bible doesn’t tell us, but it stands to reason that considering both Adam and Eve, after eating of the fruit, were driven out of the garden; Eve probably could not have remained in the garden, causing the two of them to become separated.

 

Both Adam and Eve were immortal before eating of the fruit.  In Genesis 2:17 (above) God told them that if they ate of the forbidden fruit they would die that day.  2 Peter 3:8 describes a day as a thousand years, so utilizing Peter’s math, they did die in that day (millennium).

 

So Adam knew that regardless of how things played out, he was going to lose Eve if he didn’t eat of the fruit with her.

 

Adam’s love for Eve must have been very great, and the thought of losing here was probably more than he could bear.  Not only was she his wife and the love of his life, she was the only other person on the planet at that time.

 

So rather than lose her, he chose to become like her to keep from losing her.

 

Genesis 3:8 tells us that Adam and Eve heard the voice of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and that they hid themselves from Him because of their disobedience.  They didn’t seem surprised that they heard Him in the garden in the cool of the day, so this must have been a frequent occurrence.  Being accustomed to hearing His voice, it stands to reason that they had come to know Him well. 

 

I believe Adam knew that if he became like Eve in her sin to keep from losing her, God would somehow become like him in his sin to keep from losing him.

 

2 Corinthians 5:21 confirms this:

 

He [God] hath made him [Jesus] to be sin for us, who know no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him [Jesus].

 

Jesus is referred to as the last Adam (see 1 Corinthians 15:45).  As the last Adam, He succeeded where the first Adam failed.  Without the first Adam’s failure, Jesus (the last Adam) would not have come.  His coming was God’s plan since the foundation of the world (see Revelation 13:8).

 

God forbade Adam and Eve to eat from The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, knowing they would eat from it; not only knowing they would eat of it, but knowing they had to eat from it.

 

In our next teaching, we’ll look at why they had to eat from it.

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Theology vs Revelation: The Fall of Man (2)

By Lanny Swaim

 

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Genesis 1:26-27

 

And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.

Genesis 3:22

 

In Genesis 1:26 (above) God says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."  There is much debate as to the literal meaning of image and likeness in this verse.  My intention is not to look into that debate in this teaching, but instead to share revelation I have been given on the subject.

 

The Hebrew word for image is tselem, and can mean to be a representative of something.  God created man to be His representative on Earth.  In our Republican form of government in the United States, we elect representatives to represent the general population in congress.  We also have ambassadors we send to other countries to represent the United States.

 

God created man to represent Him on Earth.

 

The Hebrew word for likeness is demuth, and has to do with character.  To be made in God’s image has to do with representing Him on Earth while to be made in His likeness has to do with becoming like Him in character, having His nature.

 

In Genesis 1:27 (above) we are told that God created man, both male and female in His own image.  But there is no more mention of likeness.

 

As I was reading this one day, I suddenly realized that God created man in His image but He did not create man in His likeness, right after He said, “Let us make man in our image after our likeness.”  So I asked Him, “What’s the deal?”  You created man in your image but you didn’t create him in your likeness, right after you said, ‘Let us make man in our image after our likeness.’”

 

Immediately I realized, “Image can be created.  Advertising agencies create image all the time.  Hollywood is all about creating image.  But likeness, or character, cannot be created.  Character must be developed.”

 

This tells me that Adam was created sinless but not perfect.  Perfection has to do with character, and since character cannot be created but must instead be developed, Adam was not created perfect.  It actually took what is commonly referred to as the fall of man, which necessitated the coming of Jesus as a man, to enable man to even begin to become like God in character.

 

God created Adam not only knowing he would disobey and fall, but knowing he had to disobey and fall, which is made clear in Genesis 3:22 where God says that man had become like God knowing good and evil.

 

It took man becoming like God in that respect (knowing good and evil) in order for Him to become like God in character.

 

Adam’s fall opened the door to sin and death, which has caused much suffering on planet Earth.  But it is through suffering that we learn obedience and God’s character is developed in us.  Even Jesus had to learn obedience through the things He suffered (see Hebrews 5:8).

 

We’ve blamed the serpent, we blamed Eve and we’ve even blamed Adam for the condition of mankind down through the centuries until the present time, but ultimately it was all part of God’s plan to have a people like Himself, which has been His intent since before the foundation of the world (see Ephesians 1:4).

 

So while the scenario in the garden appears to be a fall, actually it was a step up toward not only becoming like God, knowing good and evil, but to becoming like God in character.