As you know the winter Olympic games are being held in Vancouver. Around this time the word unity is bandied about quite a bit. This cry for unity is not new and it is not unique. In Genesis chapter 11 mankind joined together in the kind of utopic harmony modern ideologues only dream about. People came together to build a city and a tower to ensure the continued unity of mankind.
Author: Richard Garbi
As some of you know my wife and I are in North Carolina visiting my brother and his wife. We have been blessed with a safe journey so far. While driving around Wilmington I couldn’t help but notice the quantity and quality of the denominational “church” buildings.
I’m ok, you are ok… The ecumenical movement is, without a doubt, appealing to most of us. We know and love God fearing people, “good people”, all around us that practice false and destructive doctrines. It is hard to accept that unless we are able to help them find the truth they will go to Hell.
From age to age God has dealt with his creation in the same manner. He has framed his interaction and conveyed his wishes through the vehicle of a covenant. The beauty of God’s interaction can be seen in the uniform simplicity of the format of His message. This concept of a covenant is so integral to the Bible that the two major divisions are named the Old and New Testaments.
Many of the mainstream religious doctrines of our age are based upon the fallacy that God has predetermined our eternal fate. This concept simply is not supported in the scriptures. Paul clearly states in I Timothy chapter 2:1-4 that God desires everyone to be saved.
From the beginning of time God has expected obedience from us. In Genesis the second chapter beginning in verse fifteen it reads, “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Adam and Eve’s life in the Garden was predicated on their obedience to this one command. They disobeyed the command of God and subsequently were removed from the Garden of Eden. God has not left us to our own devices. He expects complete obedience to his will. Like Adam and Eve the fate of our eternal life is balanced against our compliance with the will of God.