Consequence, Consequences and More Consequences! - Chapter 34

Consequence, Consequences and More Consequences! 

The Bible from its very first pages is a history of consequences. The decisions we make, the behavior we exhibit, have consequences. Adam and Eve paid the consequences for their decision in the Garden of Eden, and mankind continues to suffer as a result of those consequences. Ancient man also paid consequences for his decisions and behavior. The Bible tells us,

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart.[1] The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.[2]

God therefore decided to:

bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die.[3]

As a result of that worldwide Flood we find massive fossil graveyards all around the world. Fossils formed in sedimentary rock laid down by flood waters all around globe are a testimony to the fact that a Global Flood without precedent occurred. They are a testimony to the consequences of man’s refusal to acknowledge God in his understanding. Apostle Peter tells us,

For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the Word of God the heavens were of old … whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water perished.[4][

The picture above is of a fossil graveyard. Fossils are found buried in sedimentary rock. Sedimentary rock is formed by sediments that are laid down by water. The best explanation for the millions of fossils found in fossil graveyards in sedimentary rock all around the world is that the sediment that formed the fossils was laid down by a worldwide flood. The great world-wide flood, Noah's Flood, is the best explanation for the millions of fossils found today in fossil graveyards.

Modern man has all but removed the idea of a great worldwide Flood from his understanding. The reason is that modern man does not want to believe in consequences, or judgments from God. From the time of James Hutton in 1780’s, to his disciple Charles Lyle in the 1830’s, science has tried to eliminate the idea of a world-wide Flood from geology and has accepted “millions of years.” Why? Because modern man wants to be “free” to live a life without moral restraints, without moral restrictions. Apostle Peter says earlier in the same chapter,

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the Last Days scoffers, walking after their own lusts.[5]

In other words, Apostle Peter, writing 2,000 years ago, predicted that in the Last Days, those terrible days of judgment just before the return of Christ, men would be motivated by their own lusts rather than be motivated by the truth. Interestingly enough, Aldous Huxley, the grandson of Thomas Huxley, who was called “Darwin’s Bulldog” for his avid defense of Darwin’s theory, candidly admitted to the fact of being motivated by his lusts. He wrote,

I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning, consequently assumed it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world (and this is what evolution really teaches) is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics; he is also concerned to prove there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do (moral liberty is the goal, to be free from religion’s confines, restrictions, or boundaries). For myself, as no doubt for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.[6]

Apostle Paul, much like Peter, said the following:

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.[7]

Wikipedia defines “itching ears” in the following way:

Itching ears is a term used in the Bible to describe individuals who seek out messages and doctrines that condones their own lifestyle, as opposed to adhering to the teachings of the Apostles.[8]

Man wants a world without consequences, so he can do what he wants, so he can have the sexual liberty that he wants. But the Bible teaches from the very first book that life is full of consequences. Rather than follow God, man accepts the theory of evolution, the modern origin’s fable, because he does not want God in his consciousness. Believing in evolution frees man from religion’s moral constraints, so he can live his life to the full, to fulfill the lusts of the flesh, or so he thinks. But Apostle Paul warns,

And with all deceivableness and unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned (which means in this case judged) who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.[9]

So we see Aldous Huxley’s honest confession confirms what was spoken by the Apostles. Because we do not want to follow God’s loving voice, but rather our own selfish desires, we reject God’s restraints and do as we will. But as a result, we end up believing a lie. The reason we do not want to follow God is because we confuse Him with the false religious system that speaks in His name. We confuse religion with God, but as one Christian activist said during the days of the Cold War, 

True Christianity is about as far from today’s religious system as capitalism is from communism.

After the Flood the next important event is the dividing into different language groups at the Tower of Babel. Mankind refused to follow God’s suggestion and scatter throughout the earth. Instead men began their own building project. They constructed a skyscraper and formed their own religion. As consequences for not doing as the Lord suggested, God divides the languages and mankind is forced to scatter to the four corners of the earth.[10]

A few generations later around 2,000 BC, because of his good decisions and behavior, God blesses Abraham. God says,

For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He has spoken of him.[11]

It was not just because Abraham believed, but because his beliefs caused him to be just and make righteous judgments. God decides to reveal to him the judgment that will be wrecked upon Sodom and Gomorrah as a consequence of the decisions and behavior of its population. And the Lord said,

Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto Me: and if not, I will know.[12]

Then Abraham has his famous discussion with the Lord, where he says,

Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?[13]

Abraham argues that it would be unjust for God to condemn the innocent with the guilty and so asks God to withhold His judgment if He can find 50 righteous people within the city. God agrees. Abraham persists until he has God agree not to condemn the city if there are but ten righteous people.[14]

Lot, Abraham’s nephew, has been living in Sodom as a judge. He is warned by the angels to flee before the destruction comes. Lot goes and pleas with his married daughters and sons-in-law to forsake the city and live. But they won’t listen to him, and he barely escapes by the persistence of the angels with his two younger daughters and wife. The wife also seemed to have a hard time leaving Sodom and all its luxuries and looks back during its destruction which the angels had specifically commanded them not to do. As a consequence she is turned into a pillar of salt.[15]

Josephus, the Jewish historian who lived from 37-100 AD, wrote in his revered book Antiquities 1.11 that he had personally seen the supposed salt figure of Lot’s wife. The figure is still found today in the mountainous area above the Salt or Dead Sea which lies on the border of Israel and Jordon. Josephus wrote,

“But Lot’s wife continually turning back to view the city as she went from it, and being too nicely inquisitive what would become of it, although God had forbidden her so to do, was changed into a pillar of salt; for I have seen it, and it remains at this day.  [16]                                                                                                                                                                        

The photo below is the rock claimed by the Moslems to be the salted remains of Lot's wife.

But Abraham chooses to follow God. He chooses to do justice and judgment rather than his own thing. He chooses doing right above the pursuit for wealth and happiness. Therefore, God enters into a relationship with him. Thus begins the history of the descendants of Abraham. It’s a beautiful history which is told in the book of Genesis in the Bible. If you have never read it, you've missed some of the world's most important literature.

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Notes: 

[1] Genesis 6:5-6
[2] Genesis 6:11
[3] Genesis 6:17
[4] 2Peter 3:5-6
[5] 2Peter 3:3
[6] https://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=9&article=680&topic=94 (accessed 03/2016)
[7] 2Timothy 4:3-4
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itching_ears (accessed 03/2016)
[9] 2Thessalonians 2:10-12
[10] Genesis 11:1-9
[11] Genesis 18:19
[12] Genesis 18:21-22
[13] Genesis 18:25
[14] Genesis 18:26-33
[15] Genesis 19:12-26

[16] https://earlychurchhistory.org/communication/the-dead-sea-the-bible/ (accessed 09/2020)

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