THE RELIGION OF THE BIBLE AND THE FAITH Of JESUS (Part 1)

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
August 10

THE RELIGION OF THE BIBLE AND THE FAITH Of JESUS (Part 1)

Religion and Faith. Regardless of any and all arguments, contradictions, disavowals, or denials to the contrary—-whether held as a personal view or upheld as a venerable tenet of belief defined by various religious authorities, or secular luminaries such as clinicians, psychologists, philosophers,
and even poets, etc., the only origin of the twin subjects of faith and religion, and the respective principles that undergird their interpretation and practices, are but two intertwined branches emanating from the main trunk of the “tree” called WORSHIP.

Here’s why:
The only true record and source of information and enlightenment on these transcendental subjects lying at the core of the humanity of the human race, is the written Word of God, the Holy Bible, specifically Genesis, the first of its 66 books–the veritable book of beginnings.

It is here, in the unvarnished, pristine sheen of primordial simplicity, unaided by jargon, metaphor, or symbolism, declared in a language that all who wish, child or adult, can understand; which are:
1) the creation of the heavens and the earth, and man, as the crowning act of the creative genius of the omnipotent power and perfect works of God Creator
2) the genesis of the fundamental principle and foundation of the first-ever of relationships possible, that being between Creator and creature, divinity and humanity.

This instantly commenced when the yet-lifeless, mannequin-like, perfectly-formed, hand-made from the “dust of the ground” in the Garden of Eden, received the first breathe of life through his nostrils, from the Life giver-Creator. Instantly, “man became LIVING SOUL.”

Thus began the Relationship between God and man, “made in the image and likeness of God,” a free moral agent endowed by his Creator with a free will, which is the glorious and precious “governing power in man,” not a “perfect” automaton. Of such is the origin of man, as designed by God.

From hereon, I shall present passages (all emphases mine) from Alonzo Trevor Jones’ booklet, The Individuality of Religion (The Divine Right of Individuality of Religion or Religious Liberty Complete).

Since God has created man, in the NATURE of things, the first of all RELATIONSHIPS is that to God; and the first of all DUTIES could be nothing but duty to God.

Suppose a time when there was only one intelligent creature in the universe. He was created: and his relationship to his Creator, his duty to his Creator, is the only one that could POSSIBLY be. That is the FIRST of all relationships that can possibly be.

Therefore, IT IS WRITTEN that ‘the first of all the commandment is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt LOVE the Lord thy God with ALL thy HEART, and with all thy SOUL, and with all thy MIND, and with all thy STRENGTH (also might).’ [Mark 12: 28, 29; cf. Deut. 6: 3-9, KJV.].

This is the consummate Biblical meaning and definitive definition of “love for God.” Everything else and anything less is not of God. Such will be “weighed in the balances of sanctuary” during the pre-advent judgment announced by the first Angel’s message of Rev. 14, and will “be found wanting.”

Bless all, till next MWM, God willing. NMF