Who are we? and who is Jesus?

[Bro Tommy Baker]

I have heard this from many young people. That they are spiritual but they dont believe in all this church stuff. This is the first of a four part series to answer that statement:

Why should we follow Jesus (pt 1). Who are we and Who is Jesus (part 2)The New Covenant (pt 3) What is sin (pt 4) The Kingdom of God. I will post these one a week after this for the next 3 weeks to complete the series. Hope you like it.

Why Follow Jesus Part1: Who are we and who is Jesus to us

  The answer starts with the most controversial question to mankind.

Are we here by accident and derived from ooze and eventually monkeys as stated in the theory of evolution or are we here by divine purpose and intelligent design?

I accept that science as a definition may have something to do with creation but why do we have to cling to evolution. If God and the afterlife exist, we have to assume he has known what we would describe as technology, even before the earth was formed. We have only had electricity a few hundred years. Look where we have come in only a few hundred years. What will we know in 1000 yrs or even 10,000 yrs. If God is real then I would think that he has known of things not only that we have learned so far but also things we will learn in the future and has known all this before our existence, so lets say for arguments sake is the 10000 yrs. What could we do in 10,000 years.

We have broken down life into DNA that is formed of a chain of genes and the genes have tags that activate them. All creation is 98% the same DNA make up. A tree is 98% the same as a human. Even dirt itself is 98% the same. We can clone an animal and change the gene content in the DNA and even make sure it is male or female and if it is black or white, yet we find it hard to believe God could make a man with over 10,000 yrs of knowledge and something that is already 98%. The book of Genesis doesn't start the 1st day till after the creation of light and dark on the earth, so who knows how long it took to that point, but I do believe it happened by design. I don't know what kind of medical advances in light technology or magnetics or chemical reactions or even discoveries of new materials of matter in space might come about, but surely we have not learned all there is in 200 or so years.

I believe we were created by divine purpose and God placed us his children, here on this planet.

Even scientist are starting to agree that the human body is too complex and too perfect to happen by accident. That it works on intelligent information and with DNA technology and research, MOST SCIENTIST NOW AGREE it is likely all men came from one man and all women came from one woman and this is exactly how it is stated in the bible.

The bible states in short form that God created us in his image and placed us here on earth. Much like we have theorized about putting people on another planet or moon

The word says in Gen 1:26 "God said let us make man in our image, after our likeness" In Gen 2:7 "And the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Gen 2:18 says "and the Lord God said. It is not good for man to be alone; I will make a help meet for him." Gen 2:21 "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which God had taken from the man, made he a woman." Sounds allot like cloning doesn't it?

I have heard many young people say they are spiritual but don't believe in all this church stuff.

Ok, lets start with that.

If spirits are real, then it would make since that they are interactive with each other and if they are interactive with each other there is probably a leader or King. We call him God!

The word says in Gen 1:26 Let us make man in our image, after our likeness In Gen 2:7 And the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. This soul is the part of us that came from and belongs to the spiritual realm and same existence as God.

As we do with our children because they are inexperienced in life, God told us what to do to keep us safe and enjoy life. Gen 2:16 And the Lord commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest eat 17 but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. I believe these are not necessarily trees like orange trees but paths of knowledge that branch out into the understanding of things and to eat of it is to learn of it.

Rather than obey God, man was influenced to decide for himself what is good for him and he ate of the tree of knowledge. In Gen 3:5 the serpent which is the devil enticed the women Eve to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil saying "eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing the difference between good and evil." Gen 3:6 "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 and did eat and gave also to her husband and he did eat."

I have heard from some they do not believe in the devil. The term Devil is not his name, nor is the devil a beast. The word devil comes from a Greek word that means a false witness or malicious accuser. It is always preceded by "the" so it is a title rather than a name. His name is Satan and was originally called Lucifer. The Devil is not a monster from his beginning but was an angel of God. If spirits are real and God who's name is Jehovah is the King then it makes since that he might have a rival who would try to take over his position. Isaiah 14:12 " How art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!" 14:13 " For thou hast said in thine heart I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God"; 14:14 "I will be like the most high " 14:15 "Yet thou shall be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit." His sole purpose is to stop people from following God by any means possible.

Back to the fall of man. So man chose knowledge. I do not necessarily believe he ate a piece of fruit but was influenced to choose and know for himself what he should do rather than obey Gods word. By his disobedience he was kicked out of the garden and left to himself to learn the difference between good and evil.

Without guidance we are left to the law of the jungle where the motivation is selfish and the biggest and strongest get their way. We were influenced by the fallen angels who were cast out with the devil and man was taught all kinds of evil. Gen 6:2 "the sons of God saw the daughters of man that they were fair and they took them wives of all which they chose." This could only have been fallen Angels who sided with the devil as God commanded from the beginning that all creation should multiply only after their own kind and those with God would not have done such a thing.

Things became so bad that God destroyed man with a flood except 8 people, Noah, his wife, their 3 sons and their wives and from these 8 people came all nations and people. Gen 10:32 "These are the generations of Noah and by these were the nations divided in the earth." Gen 11:1 "And the whole earth was one language and of one speech." All man spoke the same language and it was easy to agree on things even if they were wrong. When man decided to build a temple to heaven God decided to confuse their language to keep them from agreeing so easily. Gen 11:7 let us go down and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another. After the division of language, man could no longer communicate and each taught about the God of their ancestors who spared them from the flood and separated the people by the confusion of language.

How do we know this is true?

Almost every ancient people of every language has a story about the flood and in every dry land on the earth you will find a silt line if you dig deep enough. Silt only comes from the ocean. In the top of mt Ararat which is the tallest mountain in Turkey and the place most thought to be the landing of Noah's Ark and 14000 feet above sea level is crystals that are made and found only in the ocean. It is estimated that there are over 500 independent legends of the flood and 8 people in one man and his family, who survived in an ark. In today's bible he is called Noah, In Babylonian he is called Gilgamesh and Zisudra, in Egypt-Toth, in India-Manu, In ancient Hitite-Sutyavrada. This account is found in writings in China, Babylonia, India, America, Hawaii, Scandinavia, Sumatra, Peru and Polynesia as well as many others. The historic accounts of the flood are virtually the same. Each one talks about the 10 kings who ruled before the flood, how one man gathered animals and saved his family of 8 people by building an ark and even how the people were divided by the confusion of languages.

This is how the different religions of the world came into existence. The descendants of Noah taught their children about the flood and the God who warned them and led them to safety. This was not religion to them but a historic event, passed down from geneation to generation. After the division of people through language there was no longer a common version as each taught according to their own understanding unable to uniform the story by communicating with the other people. These religions were not created by bad people but were created by people trying to understand the God of their ancestors. Because of this there is some truth in all religions but because Noah and his children were from the old world before the flood they were influenced with the teachings of the past and so their beliefs were flawed.

Of all the different languages and peoples in the world how did Israel get to be the chosen people and what were they chosen for?

After the time of division there was many peoples of many languages who could not talk to each other at all. God could have chosen any language or any people to... What? To bring salvation to the world! Why did he choose Israel? He didn't! God chose a man because he had a personal relationship with him. Because of this relationship God made Abraham a promise. In Gen 22:16-18 He told Abraham "because thou hast done this thing and not withheld thy son, I will multiply thy seed as the stars in heaven and as the sand which is upon the sea shore and in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed because thou hast obeyed my voice."

Of the descendants of Abraham, Jacob was chosen and renamed Israel and the descendants of Jacob are the people of Israel. This was all done by personal relationships between God and individuals and God chose Jacobs descendants to establish his truth.

Through Moses God established his perfect law with the Israelites. If one could obey this law, there would have been no reason for a messiah to come but man showed in the beginning that he can not be obedient in favor of choosing his own destiny and deciding for himself what is good for him. Because they were raised in those days before the flood this understanding of the old ways was brought forward by Noah and his family and they carried that influence into the new world. Even with Gods ways being written down on exactly how to live, since the beginning of the law not one person is justified and found innocent before God. Rom 3:23 "for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" But God promised Abraham all nations would be blessed through him.

Israels King David, a descendant of Jacob who is a descendant of Abraham, found favor with God and through the descendants of David a messiah is said to come. Ever since the beginning of Judaism and the law of Moses they have been expecting a messiah to come who will make all things right. Prophets all throughout the old testament prophesied about the messiah and Jesus fulfilled them all. Every last one. He is of the house of David, It was said then and is still held true today that he was born of a virgin, He was born in Bethlehem, He was raised in Nazareth and called the Nazarene, He taught about God and was rejected by his own people, He was hung on a tree and raised from the dead on the 3rd day. All prophesied for 500 years before his birth and all fulfilled by Jesus.

So, what is the purpose of the Messiah?

 

The word Messiah by definition in the Nelson illustrated bible dictionary is; the one anointed by God and empowered by God to deliver His people and establish His kingdom. The Messiah brings in the new Covenant that saves the world. What is that? That is next weeks topic!

I know this is an abbreviated version as it would be impossible and lengthy to rewrite the bible to this point. I hope to create an interest to cause you to read the bible and research this information for yourself. In this way it will not be me telling you how it is but you learning for yourself the truth that is written in the scriptures.