(265) – THE CHILDREN OF GOD III

265 – THE CHILDREN OF GOD III

According to the biblical narrative, God created men and women in his image and likeness (Gen. 6:26-27). There are a few questions that can be asked about this.

What god has created them? The word in Hebrew is Elohim, which is in the plural, and translates “gods”. The singular of this word is El. But the word Elohim in the Bible applies to idols, too (Ex. 12:12). It also applies to false gods (Ex. 18:11). In this text we read that Jehovah is the greatest of all gods. The word Elohim applies also to the angels in the Bible. The word is Elohim. In the Psalm 78:25 we read that the people ate the bread of angels (Elohim).

God (Elohim), created man in his image and likeness: men and women (Gen. 1:26-27). This man, an image of the god Elohim, adhered to the party of the serpent for greed, interest and mainly incited by the woman, also created in the image of god (Gen. 3:1-6; Rev. 12:9). Adam and Eve, the two images of the gods (Elohim), were cast out of paradise for disobedience. Outside the Garden of Eden, abandoned by god, and under curse (Gen. 3:17-19), they degenerated terribly, and their descendants with them. Corruption and violence were such that Jehovah said: I repent to have created them in my likeness and image. I am going to destroy my image (Gen. 6:1-7). And the Flood came!

Before Jehovah’s first repentance, for he repented many times, we read that men were his children.“The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose” (Gen. 6:2). Who were these children of god? Angels? Never! for the angels were created and the children are begotten. Some say that the children of god are the children of Seth, son of Adam, who was born after Abel, and the sons of men are the children of Caim, the cursed. Others affirm that the children of god were the descendents of the first man, of Gen. 1:26-31. This man had glory (Ps. 8:3-9). Adam and Eve were deprived of the glory, and for this reason became the parents of the sons and daughters of men. These two groups are in Gen. 6:2.

The big question one may ask is: Did God have children before Christ came down to this world? The Old Testament says yes. “You are sons of Jehovah your God” (Deut. 14:1). Jehovah hides from his sons and daughters, because they are not loyal (Deut. 32:20). “Sons I have reared and brought up, but they have revolted against Me” (Is. 1:2). “For this is a rebellious people, false sons, sons who refuse to listen to the instructions of Jehovah” (Is. 30:9).

The New Testament declares another thing. In order to be children of God, we have to accept Jesus as Savior, in the first place. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of god” (John 1:12-13). In face of this tremendous declaration of the apostle John, a few questions must be asked:

  1.   If the children of the true God begin only after the incarnate Christ (John 1:12-13), how could Jehovah have children who did not come through Jesus? (Gen. 6:2).
  2.   If, in order to be children of god, men has to be born again, that is, to be born of the water and the Spirit (John 3:3-6), why were the children of Jehovah all born of flesh and blood? (1 Cor 15:50).
  3.   If the children of God are not born of the filthy carnal seed (Lev. 15:16-18; 12:1-8), why Jehovah’s children were? (2 Sam. 7:12-14; Ezek. 16:20-21). “For you have been born of the seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Pet. 1:23).
  4.   If Jesus begets children to God the Father through the passion and death on the cross  (Heb. 2:9-10), why did Jehovah beget his own children in flesh only, and outside of Christ, the author and finisher of faith and salvation? (2 Sam. 7:12-14).
  5.   If the saved by Jesus area all delivered from the yoke and slavery of the law (Gal. 5:1-4), and for this reason are children of God, why were the children of Jehovah all under the Law? (Lev. 18:5; Ezek. 20:11-13; 20:25).
  6.   If the children of God are those who have crucified the flash with its passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24), why did Jehovah call children those who lived in those wicked passions? David committed a shameful adultery even though he had other seventeen wives, and after that he commanded the death of Uriah, the husband, in order to be able to get married (2 Sam. 11-12). Solomon, the child elected by Jehovah before birth, was voluptuous, lustful and lubricous, for he had 1,000 women (2 Sam. 12:24; 1 Kings 11:1-3).
  7.   If the children of God are free, for they were delivered by Jesus (John 8:36; Gal. 5:1-4), why did Jehovah call children the ones who were slaves of the law? (Gal. 4:21-26).
  8.   If there is no imputation of sins to the children of God, for Christ paid for those sins on the cross(1 Pet. 2:24), and they are in an superior intellectual and moral state, why do the children of Jehovah, in a more primitive state, and so more needy, were summarily condemned to death and killed? (Num. 14:28-30; Heb. 3:17-19; Num. 16:28-33, 49). And five hundred years later, in the time of the king David, Jehovah killed 70,000 for no reason  (1 Cor. 21:14).
  9.   If it is written that the children of God do not sin (I John 3:9; 5:18), for those who sin are of the devil (1 John 3:8)  it is obvious that they do not sin, for they are not the old man any longer, and they have been born again (John 3:3-6), and they are a new creation (2 Cor 5:17), and John declares that whoever sins has never seen nor known Christ (1 John 3:5-6)  why did the children of Jehovah were always in the filth of flesh and of sin, like David and Solomon?
  • If the children of God are no of this world, as Jesus said (John 8:19, 23; 15:19; John 17:14-16; 1 John 2:15-17), and James in his epistle affirms that the friend of the world is an enemy of God, why did Jehovah place the world in the hearts of men? (Eccl. 3:11). It is because the kingdom of Jehovah is of this world (Ps. 47:7-8).
  • If the children of God are heirs of a celestial kingdom, not of this world, as we read in 2 Cor. 5:1-2; 2 Tim. 4:18; 1 Pet. 1:3-4; Matt. 25:31, 34why are the children of Jehovah heirs of an earthly kingdom, subject to wars and hatred? (Gen. 17:8).
  • If the children of God are those who escape from death to life, as we read in John 5:24, for death reigned since Adam until Jesus as we read in Rom. 5:17, and the very Jesus says it in Matt. 8:21-22, why did the children of Jehovah reign in death? And they reigned in death because they were all killers of Jehovah. Elijah, one of the greatest prophets, was a killer. He ordered the death of 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah, after they had turned to Jehovah (I Kings 18:19; 18:38-40). At another time he called on Jehovah, who killed 102 soldiers who obeyed orders (2 Kings 1:9-12). David killed so many that Jehovah forbade him to build the temple (1 Cr. 22:8).The truth is that David ruled in death. We, Christians, rule in life with Jesus. “For by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17). What is it — to rule in life? It is to be a bearer of the eternal life (1 John 1:1-3).

by Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

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