Was Samson A Man Of God?

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One wonders, “How could God ever forgive Samson after the wretched mess he made of his life?” The life of Samson has always made good Hollywood copy. Some see a shaggy Samson chasing after bad women. They see him slaying a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass in hand. They see a blinded, bitter Samson ending his life in a last fit of vengeance. But Hollywood has told us only part of the story — and that not very accurately. Let’s look into his life and find the answer. You will learn a vital lesson from the life of this man of God!

What we were never told on the screen is that Samson is going to be in the first resurrection with Abraham and David. He is going to RULE with Christ and all the saints on this earth!

While listing the faithful righteous, the Apostle Paul includes Samson with men like Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Samuel and the prophets (Heb.11:32). Paul says these righteous men endured many trials through faith, “that, they might obtain a better resurrection”! (Verse 35.)

Let’s now examine his life and receive a powerful lesson of hope from our Maker.

The accurate historical account of Samson is found in the book of Judges, chapters 13-16. The setting is the land of Israel, in the 12th century B.C.

Samson’s Miraculous Birth

Samson’s birth was a miracle. His mother wasn’t able to have children, but that was no problem for God. Since Samson’s parents were still loyal to God at a time of spiritual decadence in Israel, they were chosen to have a son.

A messenger (13:6) was sent by God to give them the news concerning Samson. They were told their son was to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines who were occupying the land and oppressing Israel. They were given instructions on how to care for and rear the child.

Spiritism: Fraud Or Fact?

http://www.ghosttruth.com

Can men actually communicate with departed spirits? What about the witch of Endor? What does the Bible say of spiritism?

Granted, there is trickery and deception. Houdini, one of the greatest trick artists of modern times, exposed numerous frauds. So also have Thurston, Walsh, Gearson and many others. Some leading spiritists have been convicted of plain dishonesty or common fraud and imprisoned. Yet not all spiritism is fraud or sleight of hand!

When all the frauds, the tricks, the deceptions are carefully and scientifically sifted out, there remains something to be accounted for—some real supernatural events that cannot be explained away!

Wicked spirits in control

Whether or not human beings like to admit it, the Bible plainly teaches that supernatural powers control and operate this world. The apostle Paul was inspired to write that human beings must struggle “against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in high places” (Ephesians 6:12, Authorized Version, marginal reading).

Jesus Christ never contested Satan’s claim that all the nations of the world were his. Said Satan: “All this authority” —the control of the nations—”I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be yours” (Luke 4:6-7). Little wonder, then, that spiritism should be manifest in a world controlled and operated by spirits in high places!

Modern spiritism had its birth at Hydesville, N.Y., in 1848. It began with the famous Rochester knockings heard by the Fox sisters. Now, spiritism has obtained millions of followers. It is a religion masquerading under the name of Christianity.

Gays And Conservatism: The New Norm?

Editors Comment: Gays are now pushing the conservative agenda, according to the article below by TheTrumpet.com. In this arena,  GOProud, America’s first-ever organization that “represents gay conservatives and their allies,” condemns anyone opposed to homosexuality for religious reasons, calling them backward and barbaric—then proudly evangelizes for its own cause with nothing less than religious zealotry. These homosexual conservatives” are in the vanguard of a society aggressively pursuing an anti-Bible agenda that is dismantling the old ways piece by piece and hastening our ruin by doing so.

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metroweekly.com

Conservative in America ain’t what it used to be.

“The whole idea about conservatism is about individual freedom, individual liberty,” said Matt Hissey, a 22-year-old college student, at this past weekend’s cpac.

Really? The dictionary says conservative means holding fast to established, traditional norms, customs and values. Too bad for tradition: More and more American “conservatives” agree with Hissey.

For 38 years, the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, sponsored by the American Conservative Union, has drawn dozens of high-profile right-wing American political figures, hundreds of conservative activist groups and thousands of participants. Hissey was a volunteer for an organization attending the conference for the first time—and actually co-sponsoring this year’s event. This group’s inclusion caused some consternation among long-time participants, and not just because of Hissey’s off-kilter ideas on just what conservatism is.

Hissey is a member of GOProud, America’s first-ever organization that “represents gay conservatives and their allies.”

cpac organizers wanted to show just how big the tent for “conservatives” has grown. Now it includes proud homosexuals and people who want homosexuals in the military and support other “gay rights” issues. Define “conservatism” as individual freedom and liberty, and all kinds of possibilities open up.

Predictably, though, the move rankled those who actually favor preserving traditional norms. GOProud’s presence at cpac drove some folks to boycott the event, including the Family Research Council and the Heritage Foundation. GOProud’s executive director, Jimmy LaSalvia, said the boycotters “have chosen to marginalize themselves out of the conservative movement.” The fact that such right-wing luminaries as Sarah Palin, Andrew Breitbart and Ann Coulter supported GOProud’s presence would suggest he’s correct. Clearly, Republican organizers felt they had more to gain by courting homosexuals than they had to lose by alienating social conservatives.

What If Adam Had Taken Of The Tree Of Life?

Deeply Rooted In The Word Of God - catatonickid.wordpress.com

“What would have happened to the world if the first human, Adam, had taken of the tree of LIFE?” That is a question I have never heard or read of being answered. But elsewhere than in Genesis the Bible does at least imply the answer, partially. It seems almost no one ever thought to ask that question. Would we not have lived in a different world?

You now live in a world of awesome progress, development and accomplishment. Yet this same world is filled with appalling evils. Crime, violence, immorality multiply. Discontent, unhappiness, frustration fill human minds. WHY this astounding paradox?

Amid 20th century scientific and technological advances approaching the miraculous — amid tremendous advances in production of increasing knowledge and its dissemination, we live in a world half literate, and half in abject poverty, living in filth and squalor.

WHY? Why cannot mankind solve his problems and eradicate his evils?

The die was cast at the very foundation of the world. Late 19th and 20th century intellectual progress has turned to and accepted the theory of evolution as the basic premise on which knowledge production and advancement is based. But knowledge development has been paralleled with escalating evils. Evolutionary ideas have not led to the increasing of, but the rapid elimination of well-being. Evolution cannot give us the answer to this mysterious paradox. It gives humanity NO HOPE for the future.

The only answer lies in the incident of the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden. The only explanation of this world’s paradox and the meaning of the purpose of human existence lies in understanding of that incident, which in fact was the foundation of this world.

Yes, WHAT IF the first man Adam had taken of the tree of LIFE, instead of the forbidden fruit?

Adam was required to make a choice. In that choice the die was cast on the whole 6,000-year human society up to this time. The CAUSE of every evil experienced by the billions of human lives during these 6,000 years lies in the decision made by the human father of all mankind.

Yes, WHAT IF he had taken of the tree of LIFE?

Look at that pivotal incident of all human existence. The forbidden tree was to result in DEATH. It was the tree of the KNOWLEDGE of good and evil. On man’s taking to himself that knowledge, God closed off the tree of life (Gen. 3:22-24) from all mankind until Christ, the second Adam, came. The exception to this were the prophets of ancient Israel for the writing of the Bible.

What did the forbidden tree really mean? That knowledge has no connection with material knowledge. Man was created with a mind capable of acquiring knowledge concerning matter — dealing with wood, metals, agriculture — the sciences and technology. Good and evil are concerned with relationships with other minds.

Man was made to have and need a relationship with his Maker — the supreme mind. He was made to engage in relationships with fellow humans — who have minds. Good and evil concerns MIND in relationships with other minds. But man’s mind was not a finished creation. It contains a spiritual content, not present in the brains of nonhuman vertebrates. Animals are equipped with instinct, but not thinking, reasoning, knowing minds. The human mind not only can receive knowledge of the material and its use, but also ATTITUDES in relation to other minds. That is, attitudes of love or of hate. Attitudes of self-centeredness and vanity; attitudes of envy, jealousy, animosity, competition, strife and violence; attitudes of rebellion or, on the other hand, attitudes of outflowing love, humility, reverence for God, obedience, cooperation, helping, serving, sharing — concern for the welfare and good of others.

God Lives and Works

God the Creator from eternity has existed as God — a supreme spirit Personage — and the Word — also a supreme spirit Personage, willingly and by nature subservient to God in love. Constituting the God family, these two exist eternally (John 1:1-5, 14). They lived! How did they live — by what relationship? God loved the Word who 1,986 years ago became Jesus Christ. The Word loved God. Two can’t walk together except they be agreed. They were in perfect harmony. Neither can two continue happily together except one is leader or head. God has always been head over all.

Living, they were doing. What have they been doing? They have been CREATING. Planning, designing, bringing into existence — positive constructing, not destroying. They worked thus together in love, peace, harmony. God created all things BY the Word who became Jesus Christ (Eph. 3:9).

This way of LOVE, peace, cooperation always was their way of life. That way of life became the supreme LAW of the universe — for law is merely the WAY of life. People make laws to regulate their lives. There is a basic law or constitution on which every government is based. Even games in sports have rules. So outflowing LOVE is the foundational LAW of the government of God. Sin is the transgression of that law.

Adam transgressed that law — he sinned — when he rejected the tree of LIFE and continuing contact with God and chose, instead, to take to himself the knowledge of good and evil — the knowledge of HOW to live in relationship with other MINDS — both God and human. Thus he rejected the law of God.

Now, WHAT IF he had taken of the tree of life? God closed off the tree of life until Christ the second Adam came to redeem mankind. Jesus said, “I will build my Church.” He chose 12 disciples. (The word disciple means student, one being taught.) Jesus taught them about the kingdom of God. He promised them they would receive the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, A.D. 31, the Holy Spirit came with a supernatural display (Acts 2). The Holy Spirit is the divine spiritual sperm, which impregnates with eternal LIFE (Rom. 8:11). Also it is the LOVE of God shed abroad in our hearts (Rom. 5:5).

What Did the Tree of Life Symbolize?

Therefore, the tree of life in Eden symbolized the Spirit of God, which imparts eternal LIFE. Adam was not created with eternal life. In that respect, his creation was not yet complete. Human creation is still going on!

IF Adam had taken of the tree of LIFE, he would have received that LIFE just as the true Christian may today — by receiving the Holy Spirit. Only, Adam had not yet sinned — until he disobeyed. He would have needed no repentance as we do today. But he would have BELIEVED God. He would have received the Holy Spirit — the LOVE OF GOD, which divine love fulfills God’s law.

What more? Like Christians today, he would have become an HEIR of God. He would have been begotten to become a child of God, not yet born.

In I Corinthians 2:9, we read that the knowledge of spiritual truths, attitudes and purposes of God cannot be seen by the eye nor heard through the ear. All knowledge receivable by humans enters the mind through the five senses. But (verse 10) God reveals spiritual knowledge through his Spirit. Without the Spirit of God in combination with our human spirit, no human can comprehend spiritual knowledge. That is the reason the greatest, most intellectual, most highly educated minds CANNOT UNDERSTAND the Bible — which imparts spiritual knowledge.

Therefore, as the forbidden tree was one of knowledge leading to death, so the tree of LIFE was one of spiritual knowledge leading to immortal LIFE. What Adam took to himself was spiritual knowledge, which his mind, without the Holy Spirit of God, was not capable of comprehending. He decided for himself what is right and wrong. But Satan influenced him, through Eve, to decide selfishly.

Consequently, he decided what he thought was right or wrong in relation to others from an attitude of self-centeredness — not from that of outflowing love toward others.

The tree of LIFE — symbolic of God’s Holy Spirit — was shut off and CLOSED to humans until Christ. Thus the foundation of this world — this civilization — was laid. Man has acquired material know-how to produce awesome progress, especially in this 20th century. But his progress is materialistic and physical. The uncompleted human mind has been capable of that. But the human mind has been only HALF there!

In relationship to God, what little mankind knows has been perverted by Satan. Man has been selfish in his relationship with people. He has lived the way of GETTING, not GIVING. He has been filled with greed, animosity, competition, violence, destruction. He has destroyed all of God’s earth his hands could touch or change — polluted the air and the water, worn out the soil. But WHAT IF Adam had taken of the tree of LIFE which God freely offered him?

“He Would Have … “

He would have received the Holy Spirit of God. He would thus have been given a spiritually comprehending mind. He would have continued in close relationship with God, especially in the Person of the Word, later designated as Yahweh, who would have revealed knowledge and truth progressively to Adam as he was able to absorb and understand it. He would have received the LOVE of God, God’s divine love for fulfilling the law. He would have received the FAITH of God, and even spiritual POWER to resist evil and for self-control.

But, would Satan have been banished from the earth at the time? From here on many questions may arise that God has not as yet revealed to us in the Bible. But some answers are evident, and others indicated by what is revealed.

Christ, the second Adam, resisted and rejected Satan in the great temptation (Matt. 4). But he did not take over the throne of the earth from Satan at that time, although he had qualified to take it over.

We, who do receive the Holy Spirit, are not made immortal at once, nor even in this mortal life. We must continue to overcome, to grow in grace and spiritual knowledge, and we must endure to the end of this mortal existence before we shall be made immortal. So it is indicated surely that Adam would have continued as a mortal, having God’s Spirit, until God’s righteous character had been developed in him. Eventually he would have been made immortal, Satan would have been deposed and Adam would have sat on the throne of the earth.

He would have been taught by God continually. He surely would have learned to teach Cain, Abel, Seth and other children, from the cradle, in God’s way of life and in resisting Satan.

God has not revealed it all. But we may know it would have been a far different world than that which Satan has deceived.

What DID and WILL Happen

But the first human, Adam, did not take of the freely offered tree of LIFE. So what is important to us is what did, and will happen.

God’s PURPOSE in creating and putting on earth the human family was and is to reproduce himself — to create in and through the human family his own GOD FAMILY WITH PERFECT SPIRITUAL CHARACTER, to have the human family born into the GOD FAMILY. God’s PURPOSE stands. It shall be accomplished. But how?

God’s own perfect character can only be created in us by him, but with our own individual free choice, decision and will. The first Adam did not then acquiesce in that decision and free will. He yielded to Satan and opposite character through his wife Eve.

Thereupon God moved swiftly to do certain things.

First, he shut off access by humans to the tree of LIFE — to immortality. God was not willing that humans should live eternally in the unhappy torture of perverted minds and the consequences of sin.

At the same time, so that sinning man be not lost from God-like happiness and the possibility of being born into the God family, it was thereupon necessary — at the very foundation of the human world — that Christ should come, be born human, and through death pay the penalty for the sins of all humans who repent and turn to God’s way of life.

Simultaneously, it was appointed that all humans should die, but after this, through a resurrection, come to judgment (Heb. 9:27) in which the book of life could be opened (Rev. 20:12) — and, that as in Adam all should once die, so in Christ should all be made alive (I Cor. 15:22) and then judged.

In due time, nearly 4,000 years from the foundation of this world, Christ came. He said, “I will build my Church.” As a foundation (with the prophets), he called and taught his 12 disciples. He commissioned them, as apostles, to teach all whom God would call. To them, upon repentance and belief, the Holy Spirit would be given, begetting them as sons of God. Even then, the Holy Spirit was still closed off to all except those chosen and drawn by God.

At the end of the Church age and 6,000 years from Adam, Christ would return to earth as King of kings and Lord of lords, ruling all nations, with the saints, for one millennium.

After this shall come the Great White Throne Judgment when all not called previously shall be resurrected in the judgment and come to understand what only a privileged few, who are called now, already understand.

Undoubtedly, billions of humans finally shall be born into the God family.

Source: The Plain Truth, March 1983

The Biblical History Of The Black Race

http://www.christianodyssey.com/bible/africans.html

The Bible shows that all races are descended from Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:20). God intended that there be different races to develop the differing climatic areas of the world (Acts 17:26). Accordingly, it appears that God placed within Eve’s ovaries the genetic material which would produce the various racial characteristics in humankind.

The different races we find on earth today were preserved through the Flood by the wives of Noah’s sons. Noah’s sons were white, as was the wife of Shem. The white race was continued through Shem and his wife, the black race through Ham’s wife, and the yellow race through Japheth’s wife. God tells us He separated the families of man and decreed the boundaries of their dwelling places (Deut. 32:8). He intended that there be different nationalities and races and caused this to occur.

Sometime after the Flood many black people migrated to Africa. There, sad to say, they have been divided and hindered by tribalism. As the centuries passed, they did not develop technologically in comparison with other cultures. And, in this evil world where the strong prey upon the weak, evil men bought or captured many blacks for use as slaves in the New World. Often these slave traders bought the slaves from black men who rounded up their enemies from other tribes for the purpose of selling them into slavery. So, there were evil men on both sides.

Racial prejudice does not exist just between blacks and whites. This evil is found wherever peoples of different races and cultures rub together in competition for jobs, property, and wealth. In the United States the whites had the power to oppress the blacks, so that is what happened. The blacks and browns are at each other’s throats in parts of Africa. In Indochina there have been endless struggles for domination by one people or another. And, of course, there was the red versus white battle in the conquest of this land. No group has been guiltless; racial hatred is universal in all races, societies, and cultures. It is a terrible compulsion put into human hearts by Satan the devil — the god of this world (II Cor. 4:4).

Concerning blacks in prophecy, the Bible primarily concerns the history and future of Israel.  He intended Israel to set an example for all the other nations and to teach them His way. Because other peoples are generally mentioned only as they come into contact with Israel, the Bible does not say much specifically about the black race. A Bible concordance and other study aids will help you find where these people are referred to in some of the prophecies.

All people will continue to partake of both the blessings and curses which God will send upon the descendants of Israel (not the modern country). The ultimate destiny of man — whether black, brown, white, red, or yellow — are to be resurrected into the family of God. So therefore the Bible is not a book by a white God for white people only.  There is no racial prejudice with God: “God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him” (Acts 10:34-35). Those who will put aside racial and other hatreds now and seek God, letting His Spirit reform and develop godly character, will be made immortal when Christ comes. Then all men will be taught to live in peace (Isa. 2:2-4). There will be a new era of blessings for all people.