Life Binaries And The Inevitability Of God’s Judgment

Click for Full Image Size

If the Lord God Almighty had not given human beings the choice of their eternal destiny and each of us should decide whether or not to serve their Creator, Satan and his rebellious hordes would have had a valid case for their treason. Lucifer who later became Satan rebelled for selfish reason and lured the other renegade spirits with power (Isaiah 14: 12-14). Lucifer wanted to be like his Maker: the Lord God Almighty but it was a senseless misadventure which ended in a terrible fiasco (Ezekiel 28: 14-24).

The aftermath of that rebellion led to the creation of Hell, which is the permanent future home of Satan and his spiritual gangsters: principalities, demons, oppressors, and spiritual forces of evil. Ab initio, the Lord God Almighty never created Hell to be inhabited by human beings. “They-the Israelites- have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal--something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.” (Jeremiah 19:5).

Hell was and is created for Satan and his demons as our Lord Jesus Christ disclosed in Mathew 25: 41: "Then he-our Lord Jesus Christ- will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Thus, if hell or eternal fire has been prepared for Satan and his fallen angels-principalities and demons-how then will human beings share the same fate with these rebellious spirits? Those who end up in hell or eternal fire have themselves to blame, because the Lord God Almighty didn't conceive hell or eternal fire as a final destination for human beings, but only for Satan and his rebels.

Here is the deal: the Lord God created this earth for us-human beings, the human race; you and me. He gave it to us through Adam and Eve who were our representatives. The Lord God said as much in Genesis 1: 26:“Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." To reiterate His plan for the earth as the exclusive property of the human race, the Lord God Almighty stated again in Genesis 1: 28 thus: “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (NKJ). However, the exercise of power, authority and dominion that God gave to the human race which Adam and Eve as our First Parents were representatives was dependent or predicated on their continued obedience, faith and loyalty to the Lord God Almighty who gave the powers.

There is only one way to know the demonstration of anyone's obedience, faith and loyalty to a superior or higher authority: through an instruction. Adam and Eve must prove their obedience, faith and loyalty to their Creator by obeying His instruction in Genesis 2: 16-17: “The Lord God commanded the man saying; “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." The instructions here were diametrically oxymoronic: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the instruction to eat and not to eat and the repercussions of disobedience: death; you will surely die (not that you may or likely die, but you will surely die). The instructions could not be clearer and the consequences of either obedience or disobedience could also not be clearer. The Lord God Almighty left Adam and Eve in no doubt as to the basic highlights of their life's journey: obey Me your Creator and Lord and you would reap the benefit of life. On the other hand, discount My command who is your Creator and Lord disobey Me and reap death. These are two discernible choices before Adam and Eve; all human race; and you and me.

Why did the Lord God test Adam and Eve? Why didn't He allow us to worship Him whether we as human beings like it or not? Why did He want us to declare our allegiance to Him or to Satan? In other words, as some human beings have asked and many are still asking today; why did the Lord God create us human beings as free moral agents with the ability to obey or disobey, worship or not worship Him? Apostle Paul answered those questions in 1 Corinthians 13: 1-8 when he listed seventeen characteristics of God's Love. The Lord God Almighty as we know is the repository of these seventeen attributes of Agape Love and two of the qualities that the Lord God Almighty displayed here in Genesis 2: 16-17 when He gave the above instructions were: “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Love always protects, always trusts…” (1 Corinthians 13: 6).

The same Agape Love has been with the Father from the Beginning and He will never change. He displays the same Love to all the angels and His other creation. These attributes of the Father were what Lucifer and his angels tapped into to stage a rebellion in heaven which led to their expulsion. The Lord God Almighty is the repository of power, authority, dominion, wisdom etc. and thus could not and will never entertain fear from any of His creation, thus it is the created that will always fear punishment from the creator and there is only One Creator: the Lord God Almighty. This is the point that many spiritually-ignorant people do not understand when they ask questions like: If the Lord God Almighty knows all things-which is true as an Omniscient God-why did He crate Lucifer who later rebelled against Him and became Satan? Or as some have also asked: If the Lord God Almighty knows everything-which is true because He is omniscient-didn't He know that Adam and Eve would rebel against Him and then stop them?

That is actually a question that shouldn't even arise when analyzed against the other two unique attributes of God: omnipotence and omnipresence. If the Lord God Almighty is Omnipotent-that is all-powerful, has unlimited power and can do anything (Luke 1: 37, Mathew 19:26) and at the same time Omnipresent-that is, He is everywhere at the same time-then it stands to reason that He cannot, and will never fear rebellion from any of his creation. In other words, you raise your heels against your Maker, you perish. The Lord God Almighty Himself said as much in Isaiah 45.9: "Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' Does your work say, 'The potter has no hands'?

Now let's bring Satan into the picture. When Satan entered the Garden of Eden by stealth via the serpent; he went straight to contest the two instructions that the Lord God Almighty gave to Adam and Eve. He asked a question and then rebutted the effect or consequence that God told Adam and Eve would occur, if they disobeyed Him. “You will surely not die,” the serpent told the woman. (Genesis 3: 4). Another translation says: “You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman.” Again, we are confronted with the same dialectical counterfactual that the Lord God used in Genesis 2: 16-17 but in Satan's case, he flipped it around. While the Lord God presented a diametric oxymoron in His instruction, Satan removed the oxymoron and left Adam and Eve with no choices and presented them with a fait accompli: you will be like God. Suppose Adam and Eve believed the Lord and obeyed Him, what would they gain? Satan cleverly obscured that aspect of his tricks but pointed to what He could not achieve in heaven and knew Adam and Eve would not be able to achieve either-be like God. Remember the reason Lucifer rebelled against the Lord God Almighty in heaven was when he said: “I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High” (Isaiah 14: 14).

He couldn't make it, because there is no creation or the created that can make him/herself the Creator. There is only One Creator in the heavens and the earth and His Name is the Jehovah Lord God Almighty, Hallelujah! Satan pulled the same tricks here on Adam and Eve, because Satan knew they would fail just as he and his demonic hordes failed earlier on in heaven and fell. This is the first lie ever told on earth and that was why when God-in-the flesh: our Lord Jesus Christ came to the earth, He said of Satan in John 8: 44: “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

The Book of Genesis is indeed what it is; the beginnings of everything. When we understood what transpired in Genesis 3 between Satan and our First Parents and their fall, we will also understand the nitty-gritties of the cosmic contest and spiritual warfare currently going on between God and Satan for the hearts of all human beings. We must admit it: Satan scored a bull's eye in Genesis 3 when he stole the power, authority and dominion over the earth that the Lord God Almighty gave to Adam and Eve. Satan made no bones about his victory and told our Lord Jesus Christ pointedly in Luke 4: 5:-7 “The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.” But Satan stole the powers and at any rate, Adam and Eve were mere representatives of the Man that God gave the powers to in Genesis 1: 26 & 28. That was why our Lord Jesus Christ referred to Himself as the Son of Man (Mark 2: 10). You see; language matters in the things of the spirit.

To the Lord God Almighty, the Man He created with power, authority and dominion over the earth hasn't fallen, although the representatives of Man; Adam and Eve fell. But the fall of these two representatives hasn't vitiated the power, authority and dominion over the earth that the Lord God Almighty gave to the generic Man. Between Genesis 3: 15 and Malachi, the Lord God Almighty allowed Satan and his demons to exercise their illegal powers which they stole from Man's representatives; Adam and Eve while preparing His moves to come down to the earth physically to retrieve the stolen powers. Between Mathew and Acts 1, the Lord accomplished that purpose and from Acts 2 to date, the Holy Spirit, who is God in the Spirit is demonstrating these powers, authority and dominion on earth until the Advent when Satan and his demons, including those who refuse to use these powers will be physically removed from the earth to where they will spend eternity, which is the Other Side of the eternal divide known as hell or eternal fire.

he oxymoron of life that Adam and Eve fell into in Genesis 3 when they believed Satan that they would not surely die compared with God's command that they would surely die if they ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil continues today. That is why there are life binaries which ultimately define the eternal destination of every human soul. In all we do and activities we engage in as human beings on earth, we are daily confronted with these life binaries. To believe or not to believe; to save or destroy; you can see or cannot see; we choose to understand the plans of God on earth or choose to remain in ignorance. In our individual life's decision, we either trust the Saving Grace of the Death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ or we discountenance His atoning sacrifice on the Cross and the salvation He earned for sinful humanity.

This divergent pull of human decision in the journey of life and our individual's ultimate eternal destination was brought home forcefully by our Lord Jesus Christ when He told the Jews: “I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins." (John 8: 24). Today, that ultimate decision on whether the Lord Jesus Christ is what He said He was and is or not confronts each and every one of us. Someone once said that there is no partial “belongation” when it comes to the issue of eternity. There may not be any word as “belongation” but the utterer of that word is indeed right. As there is no median lane in the two highways to eternity, so also we can see in our individual life that Nature doesn't make room for “middle ground.”

Something is either cold or hot; if it turns lukewarm, ultimately it must turn cold thus confirming a permanent state. My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ said each and every one of us is either destroying or saving (Luke 9: 56); He said those of us who have chosen to invest our eternal destinies into His secured and solid Hands are either looking back or going forward (Luke 9: 62), which is true. Either you a born-again Christian has your hands on the plough and not looking back with your eyes fixated on the finish line or you are being distracted by the fleeting pleasures of this decadent status quo called life and still harboring to savor it. But our Lord and Savior told us pointblank; we are holders of Green Card on earth; pilgrims and aliens on earth but looking forward to our permanent residency in heaven (1 Peter 2: 11). In these life's binaries, we either reject or accept the Words of Salvation. We are either at peace with our Creator through accepting the Prince of Peace-Jesus Christ-as Lord and Savior or be at war with the Creator through our disobedience to His plan for salvation and pursue our own idea of salvation through religion. It is stupid, indeed the highest level of foolish pride to say you accept Jesus Christ as Lord and yet refuses to live your life according to His Lordship.

It is either you are confident while alive here that your name has been written in the Lambs Book of Life or your name hasn't been written. It can't be both. If Jesus Christ said in John 3: 16 thus: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life,” and one verse after those declarative words said furthermore in John 3: 18 “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son,” then should not argue over these two oxymoronic statements. The first is positive; the second is negative. If you believed, you're not condemned; if you do not believe, you are not condemned. Those are two irreconcilable differences just as we read in Genesis 2: 16 & 17. Those are two diametrically-opposed statements and decision making choices.

Again, the Lord Jesus Christ presented all human beings with these two choices and two lanes and highways that are so asymmetrical like two parallel lines which cannot and will never meet in Mathew 7: 13-14: "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it, (but)… the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Here, there is no reconciliation between these two forks on the road to eternity. You're either cruising on the Broad Highway of Life or traveling on the Narrow Gate of Life; you can't be traveling on both and there is no median lane. There is this meme in religious circles that no one knows how his/her life journey will end, because we do not know who will be saved or not. That sounds logical according to human reasoning but our Lord Jesus Christ didn't leave any one in doubt as to the outcome of our life's choices. Who says we can't know our eternal destination? Who says there is no way to know who will go to heaven or hell?

That is not what the Holy Bible says. From these Bible verses above and numerous others in the Word of Life, you and me can easily know which side of the Eternal Divide we shall end up after we are done here on earth. Pair up John 3: 16 and Mathew 7: 13 above and you will arrive at one conclusion thus: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that… (remove the “whoever” and put your name here) believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life,” and shall thus, “Enter through the narrow gate (which is) the gate (that) is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Per contra, if you pair up the declarative and unambiguous statement of our Lord Jesus in John 3: 18 and Mathew 7: 14 above, here is the inevitable outcome: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son (because) wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.”

Whichever of these two diametrically-opposed choices each human being makes in life will ultimately define which of the two eternal abodes available; heaven or hell that we inhabit after our temporary life sojourn? Again, our Lord Jesus Christ presented the logical two outcomes available to each of our choices thus in Mathew 25: 31-46: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' “Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' “The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.' “Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' “They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' “He will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Which of these life's two irreconcilable choices have you made? Which lane of life are you traveling? Where will you find yourself when you appear before the Lord Jesus Christ who said He is the Way, the Truth and the Life and the Only Way to heaven? Will you appear on the Right or Left Side of the King of kings and Lord of lords? Will you be told by Him to depart from Him or enter unto His joy of eternal life? The choice is yours.

Dr. Fayemiwo is CEO, Alternative Lifestyle Communication, DBA Chicago and co-author of the latest book: “Coming to America.” The collection of his articles in The Christian Walk column has now been compiled into a book by popular demand and the book titled: “Walking the Christian Walk: Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior” is available now for free. Visit his company's website and find out how you can obtain your free copy of the eBook at: www.allternativecommunication.net

Disclaimer: "The views expressed on this site are those of the contributors or columnists, and do not necessarily reflect TheNigerianVoice’s position. TheNigerianVoice will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements in the contributions or columns here."

Articles by The Christian Walk