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Date Posted: 08:24:59 12/06/08 Sat
Author: Joan
Subject: Re: MOSES
In reply to: KENNETH FOSTER 's message, "MOSES" on 04:24:36 12/06/08 Sat

Dear Kenneth,

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my request. What I thought was so interesting was that you spoke about the second world war. I was just talking to my daughter about it yesterday! That period of history has always held an extreme sad place in my heart. Such injustices that were done. And, now come to think of it, it was just Thursday that I was talking to my sister about the newspapers our Dad had kept which contained atrocities that were done to Jews and others. My father's parents were from Poland and this was very close and real to him. He didn't talk to us kids about it and it was only when we became adults we understood why he had saved those newspapers. Then last night my youngest daughter and I watched a movie, "Autumn Hearts" which told of the reunion of three people who knew of each other during the war and suffer together. I reordered this movie by mistake, or so I thought. It was in the second watching that I had a deeper understanding of what they were trying to convey.

Even as a young girl, I can remember reading "The Diary of Anne Frank" and it had such a major impact on me. I wanted to read it again and even again in my older years. It breaks my heart to think of the precious lives that were lost by the hand of an evil man who was able to get otherwise decent human beings to follow his command. It is unfathomable to me that this could happen - and yet it has. And continues to happen under so many different banners; Jihad, drugs, anger and even, God forgive us, pro choice. Oh, how this breaks God's heart for He is the giver of life, not death. Yes, there is great darkness in the world, Kenneth, and it is by man's very free will that it has been brought and allowed to happen on the earth.

The reason why I asked you to please tell me where you had read that God had taken away man's free will in the Bible is because I am fully persuaded that the Bible is God's Word given through man so that we could come to know our Creator and His desire for our lives. I have been studying the Bible since my early 20's and having just turned 60 years of age, that is a far amount of time. With the Holy Spirit's help I have learned that what is a contridiction to many in the Bible is only a lack of understanding what God is saying. We need the Holy Spirit to help us read "between the lines" if you will.

Kenneth, this is a Christian site and I have stated that many times to you. When you come and speak of God as being the same God of other religions it stirs within my spirit an alarm. The Bible speaks of the end times there being a One World religion, where the gods of all religions are formed into one god that they are to believe in. A one world order, perhaps like what Hitler was trying to create by killing off "the lesser species." Oh my God, to devalue human life tears at my heart. And, if you say God is a God of love and therefore would cause no hurt or harm to anyone, why now, all of a sudden, would he cause pain and suffer to come to people who have done wrong? Love is patient, long suffering, kind, etc., etc. Is that not what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13? So why would God lose His patience, and want to harm man??? It is clear that there is some misunderstanding here.

Also, as you mentioned Moses and God telling him to kill the Midianites, it is easy for us to question whether this could be from God since God is a god of love. What might help you to grasp this is that the Hebrew language is much more exquisite than our own, having a larger range of words. What is translated into English as "kill" has many, many other Hebrew words that breaks this down to more distinct and clear meaning. Years ago I questioned God about how He could instruct others to kill when in His Commandmants we find that "thou shall not kill." The Holy Spirit took me on a word study where I found out that the word "kill" in the (ten)commandments is in Hebrew the word "ratash" meaning "murder." The Hebrew word used in Numbers 31:17 is "harag" and means "slay." So, did God tell Moses to kill the Midianites? Remember, God's instruction to him was to slay them, not murder them which would mean "to kill them unjustly." Who were the Midianites? They were a people who seduced the God's people, the Israelites, through sexual immorality and got the Israelites into an idolatrous religion. In telling Moses to slay these immoral people God was bringing His judgment down upon them, much as what I believe we are beginning to see happen in our day because of us turning away from the One true God and departing from His ways and instruction. Now if God had instructed Moses to kill innocent people that would have been a different story, but He did not. They people had become so poluted with evil that it was even carried down to their children and that is why they all had to be slayed so the children didn't grow and spread more evil around. And, if you read on in the Bible, you find that the Midianites were not all destroyed and they continued to cause havoc on the earth until Gideon completed the task given to Moses. It is not a pretty picture to say the least. And it is one hard for us to comprehend. But who knows the mind of God? It far exceeds our little minds for sure.

Kenneth, perhaps it would help you or any who might read this to know that the Old Testament was a telling prophetic telling in the natural that is given greater understanding in the New Testament. There is evil today but now, because of Christ Jesus, we do not wrestle with flesh and blood. Our war is not against mankind but it is against the principalities, the powers of darkness out there that infiltrate our world. One day Jesus will return and there will be a final battle where evil is destroyed. Hitler was filled with evil and it was not God's will that what happened then happened. He sent Jesus so that we might have life and have it more abundantly, not only in this world but in the eternal world without end. Satan is alive and well and is still rearing his ugly head as the prince of this world. Until we wage war with him, coming against his evil and corrupt ways and striving to walk in the footsteps of Him who is The Way, The Truth and The Life, only then will things make sense to us. You know, if God decided to destroy most of mankind He would have every right to justly do it. But He could not justly kill those who have accepted Jesus as their Lord and who strive to keep Him as their first love and walk in His ways. That would be murder and God cannot unjustly kill anyone for He is righteous and just.

God bless!

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