The Way The Church Should Teach Christians

[The fundamental solution to overcome the threats of sports, screen, and sex]

Many people are explaining what life and happiness are in their own ways, but those expressions are only downright arrogance of human beings due to ignorance without considering the basis of human beings. All human beings are merely a creation of God whether they like it or not, or they accept it or not. In addition, they have to fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man (Ecc 12:13). If human beings do not realize this, then they live a fruitless life in spiritual pain and suffering and only return to the ground without rest and sanctuary in the midst of endless vain efforts and hardships.

Why have human beings come to this way and where are they going from now? All the answers from these questions can be found from the incident of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Book of Genesis. God created man in his own image with love. Also, He created the Garden of Eden and Adam lived happily there with God. God commanded Adam, saying “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Ge 2:16-17).

However, the serpent tempted Eve and said to her, “In the day you eat it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing, good and evil” (Ge 3:5). Man who expelled from the Garden of Eden by eating the fruit of the tree due to the temptation by the serpent surely faced death as a result of sin like the word of warning by God. The death means spiritual death even though the flesh is alive. In other words, man is dead in relation to God because God is spirit. Like this, it is not possible for those who are dead in spirit to find happiness. The dead are deprived of freedom of souls, live an empty life in suffering and frustration and finally face the end of life. For man is dust, he will return to dust. God never wants mankind to have such a tragedy.

God’s hope is to restore mankind to Adam before the fall and live happily in the Garden of Eden together with him. Therefore, God set up a great project for salvation through Jesus Christ, a descendant of a woman, and opened the way for mankind to restore again to the Garden of Eden through that project. Like this, all the reasons which brought tragedy between God and mankind started with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Indeed, what is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

1. What is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is distinction and judgment between good and evil (Ge 2:17). No one is good except God alone (Mt 19:17, Mk 10:18). Accordingly, only the things started from God such as God’s will, plan, word, etc. become ‘good’, whereas all things that are not started from God become ‘evil’. Thus, no matter how good, beautiful, and wonderful it looks to mankind, it is evil if God says it is evil. On the other hand, no matter how ugly, weak, inconvenient, and dirty it looks to mankind, it is good if God says it is good. Therefore, there is only one Lawgiver and Judge (Jas 4:12).

By the way, mankind began to distinguish and judge between good and evil for himself regardless of the will of God after Adam ate the fruit of the tree. In other words, distinction between good and evil is the absolute God’s inherent authority. However, man started to distinguish between good and evil, guess and judge such as ‘it will be this and it will be that or this is good and this is bad’ by using his own wisdom, knowledge, experience, and discernment. From this time on, mankind has not found God’s will and permission but solved all of facing problems in life by his own wisdom, knowledge, and experience. Like this, it is arrogant and rude toward God as man to distinguish between good and evil for himself regardless of God’s will. Also, such behavior is to ignore God totally, thus it was the reason why man was expelled from the Garden of Eden. Why did mankind eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

2. The cause and effect of having eaten the fruit from the tree of the knowledge (The cause was originated from the greed of human being, which resulted in the separation from God.)

The incident of the tree of the knowledge was resulted from the greed of human being to become like God. The world consists of the lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life (1Jn 2:16). Satan tries to lure people with these three lusts as baits. Eve caught in these traps. Accordingly, the reason of having eaten the fruit from the tree of the knowledge was that Adam and Eve were tempted to become like God by three lusts and began to distinguish between good and evil for themselves regardless of God’s will in order to fulfill that desire.

Greed requires continuously new things without end like a domino effect. As desire creates desires and leads to a world of desire without end, if you once fall into the world, then you can not come out of it and this endless and never-failing world is called Hades (Pr 30:15-16). In order to accomplish desire, man threw off the will of God and love, i.e. the image of God; and turned into the flesh with the instincts of the brute. As the flesh is the opposite concept of love, it means immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outburst of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, things like these (Gal 5:19-21). As long as people have these elements in their mind, they can not be with God forever (Ge 6:3).

“My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh” (Ge 6:3).

Likewise, men were expelled from the Garden of Eden after having eaten the fruit from the tree of the knowledge due to greed and they were unable to communicate with God. From that time on, human beings had no choice but to follow the path of evil because they did not know ‘good’, the will of God.

(Attributes of good and evil)

The attributes of ‘good’ are light, life, eternal life, salvation, holiness, joy, rest, peace, blessing, prosperity, wealth, happiness, etc. By doing ‘good’ which is the word of God, people will be in the attributes of ‘good’. On the other hand, as the attributes of evil are death, darkness, sin, curse, collapse, pain, disaster, ugliness, dirty, hardship, disease, vanity, sadness, vain attempt, distress, etc. (Ro 2:9), people will face these results when they do evil away from ‘good’. Therefore, mankind who followed the pathway of evil without knowing ‘good’ has lived a fruitless life in tribulation and distress according to the attributes of evil under the power of death after the incident of the tree of the knowledge. What is a way for mankind to escape from such a painful life? The only way is to return to the Garden of Eden after the restoration of Adam before the fall. By doing so, mankind should do ‘good’ which is the word of God.

3. The way of not eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge is to return to ‘good’, the word of God.

‘Good’ means all things that God represents His will as well as the word of God. Regarding ‘good’, God expresses His will to mankind through first, the Law; and second, the law of the Holy Spirit. The Law is perfect and the only law for human beings to receive physical blessings while they live on earth (Dr 30:9). This law is the law that God promised to Moses in Mt. Sinai and based on the Ten Commandments. This is everlasting law and God promised to His people that He would give temporal blessings which people would like to pursue such as physical health, materials, honor, wealth, longevity, etc. when they kept this law. In addition, the law of the Holy Spirit is the law which receives the best blessings that lead to salvation after restoration of Adam before the fall by fulfilling the image of God and this is the ultimate goal for the Christian faith.

First: What is the Law?

In order to return to the Garden of Eden after the restoration of Adam before the fall, the most urgent thing for mankind to do is to escape from the power of death. People should not be deceived any longer by sin and evil which lead to death and have discernment of good and evil not to be manipulated. The Law leads man to distinguish between good and evil. The reason for Moses to raise a bronze serpent was to show evil which led to death by revealing the identity of the serpent with setting the bronze serpent on standard in the wilderness (Nu 21:7-9). Like this, the discernment of good and evil is obtained through the Law. Therefore, the Bible declares that the power to seize death is the Law (1Co 15:56). Such discernment of good and evil distinguishes between blessings and curses according to whether the Law is observed or not. In other words, life, blessing, wealth, longevity, etc. in the attributes of ‘good’ are given when people observe the Law, whereas adversity, curse, etc. in the attributes of evil are given when they disobey the Law. As a result, this leads man in the flesh to have discernment of good and evil.

Accordingly, as all physical happiness and wealth that man is pursuing are not obtained by human efforts and knowledge, ways and means but by obeying this law which God established, God teaches man that blessing and curse are coming from God through the Law. Therefore, the Bible says that God sets life, prosperity, death, and adversity before man and asks him to choose for himself (Dt 30:15, Jer 21:8, Dt 11:26).

“See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it” (Dt 30:15-16).

“Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death” (Jer 21:8).

“See I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse” (Dt 11:26).

Even though the heaven and earth pass away, the Law is everlasting law which does not disappear (Lk 16:17), thus the Law is not limited to only the Old Testament Period and Israel. All human beings who live on this earth must obey this law beyond ages and when they do it, they belong to attributes of ‘good’, thus they receive blessings. This is the only law for human beings to receive physical blessings. Accordingly, to achieve wealth and longevity by human efforts, knowledge, means, etc. away from the Law is illegal. Although they gain what they want in their hands if they obtain them illegally, they only face the result of fruitless life by an evil which they can not enjoy them; and by a severe affliction.

“There is an evil which I have seen under the sun and it is prevalent among men a man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor so that his soul lacks nothing of all that he desires;  yet God has not empowered him to eat from them, for a foreigner enjoys them. This is vanity and a severe affliction” (Ecc 6:1-2).

In order to spread the law of life and blessings, missionaries have traveled the whole world and preached the gospel for 2,000 years; and many martyrs shed their blood. Therefore, all human beings cannot make excuse that they have not heard the gospel of Christ (Ro 10:18, Ro 1:20). Now, pagan religions, curses and disasters such as national and all human poverty, starvation, famine, disconnection, disease, terror, war, natural calamity, etc. are natural results of ‘evil’ because they did not believe and keep the Law, the law of God due to their stubbornness and obstinacy. Therefore, they can not blame others for the results and they are only responsible for those. What and how should God do more to human beings? Now, the remaining thing to mankind is God’s judgment. The judgment means to pull out and burn out all things that God did not plant, i.e. things that do not belong to God’s ‘good’ (Mt 15:13). Since over 2,800 years ago, the Bible has said through prophets, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” (Heb 3:15, Heb 4:7).

“Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked me” (Heb 3:15, Heb 4:7).

Like this, as God justly and accurately executes judgment of blessing and curse on the basis of the Law even though it is invisible to human eyes, God reveals Himself to the world. Therefore, the Bible says that the Word was God (Jn 1:1). As God has executed judgment from a worthless single word that man spits out to even every beast (Ge 9:5), God has controlled and operated all things and the judgment has become the basis for the rise and fall of the human history, each nation, each family, and each individual. Mankind has formed firm faith and reverence for God through such execution of the Law. By doing so, the Law leads mankind to the law of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the Law plays a role like a tutor in our childhood to lead us to law of the Holy Spirit by letting faith grow toward God.

“... the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ,...” (Gal 3:24)

By the Law, King Solomon who had the greatest wealth and was in the highest glory on this earth preached the vanity of life to future generations through the Book of Ecclesiastes. In other words, even if all the riches and glory of the world are given to man, he is bound to have more awareness of surging feeling of solitude, loneliness, and emptiness. Therefore, it is said that vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities and all is vanity. This means that now it the time to grow up spiritually from the Law. ‘Spiritual’ is the gospel of the kingdom of heaven which Jesus Christ presented. Human happiness does not exist in riches and glory due to plenty of materials but it is in returning to the bosom of God, the Creator. Only then man can feel perfect and everlasting happiness. It is the kingdom of heaven i.e. the Garden of Eden and this is the destination for mankind to reach. Jesus Christ told how great the kingdom of heaven was. In the kingdom of the heaven, the world which Jesus Christ said, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of lilies of the field (Mt 6:29). The law of the Holy Spirit, the gospel of the kingdom of heaven is to witness such world.

Second: The law of the Holy Spirit

The law of the Holy Spirit is the law which leads mankind to return to the kingdom of heaven, i.e. the Garden of Eden by forming the image of God through the fulfillment of love. The fulfillment of love cannot be achieved by the Law. The Law is the law which only leads people to distinguish between good and evil and the fulfillment of the Law is love (Ro 13:10). However, no matter how man tries and makes an effort, he cannot achieve the fulfillment of love. The fulfillment of the love at once in the spirit can be achieved only by the help of the Holy Spirit who is the spirit of Jesus Christ. It is the law of the Holy Spirit. The law of the Holy Spirit consists of the fullness of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

● The fullness of the Holy Spirit

The fullness of the Holy Spirit is returning of man who is under the power of death due to the fall to the Garden of Eden, the kingdom of heaven which means to gain new life and also means to be saved by restoration of the image of God again through fulfillment of love. The fulfillment of love can only be achieved by the grace of Jesus Christ. Grace means that we are governed by the love (1Co 13) because God drives out the elements of the flesh (Gal 5:19-21) within our hearts and pours out the spirit of Jesus Christ who is the spirit of perfect love, i.e. the power of the Holy Spirit (Ro 5:5). By doing so, the kingdom of God which consists of righteousness, joy, and peace is fulfilled in my heart (Ro 14:17).

If I receive grace, the change of my heart happens immediately: a hatred mind i.e. such a mind of retaliation and curses poured from my lips without hesitation in evil thoughts by receiving the slight damage or hurting my feelings changes into a mind of loving the enemy; a mind of distrust and doubt about God changes into a believing mind as it is very naturally; if someone strikes me on the right cheek, I turn to him the other also and if someone wants to take my tunic, I let him have my cloak as well. If someone forces me to go one mile, I go with him two miles, etc. Such mysterious power of love appears to me now.

Like this, the fullness of the Holy Spirit means that I can easily discard hatred, greed, etc. in my mind toward my neighbors until not long ago; I truly feel sorry, pity and sympathy for them; I also feel that all mistake of my neighbors and my brothers are my mistake and my fault; even if I apologize for my wrong doing by holding out my hand at any time now and have given everything to them, I do not feel grieved and I am not ashamed of it; and I cannot deny this power, some absolute power which I must do so. Moreover, I truly and deeply cherish even their spirit by love over forgiveness and tolerance, and I pray for intercession and repentance more seriously and responsibly regarding their problems than my own problems.

Even those are not done by coercion and duty but by very natural willingness. Like this, the kingdom of heaven is not in a concept of place which exists vaguely in somewhere in heavenly place. Jesus Christ already said, “The kingdom of God is in your midst” (Lk 17:21). Likewise, the kingdom of God is that righteousness and peace and joy are fulfilled in our midst (Ro 14:17). Also, Adam is not a mythical figure but exists in my heart in which the kingdom of God is fulfilled in reality right now. This is the gospel of the kingdom of heaven which Jesus Christ preached.

Therefore, the fullness of the Holy Spirit means the restoration again to love, i.e. the image of God from the fall man due to the incident of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. By this, he can be united with God and communicate with God. In addition, due to being one spirit with God, ‘good’ i.e. the guidance of the Holy Spirit can be received by sharing and knowing all of God’s heart, will, wisdom, knowledge, etc. Consequently, the fullness of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the Holy Spirit become one.

● The guidance of the Holy Spirit is to receive the guidance of the perfect ‘good’.

Because the image of God has been restored again through the fullness of the Holy Spirit, the guidance of the Holy Spirit is to directly receive the distinction between good and evil and teachings from God by the restored communication with God. In other words, God leads us directly by teaching, bring all things to our remembrance and instructing concerning sin, i.e. evil; righteousness, i.e. ‘good’; and judgment (Jn 16:8). No one knows the will of God, the thoughts of God, except the Spirit of God (1Co 2:11). Accordingly, the guidance of the Holy Spirit is informing of God’s good will to us directly by the Holy Spirit who is the spirit of Jesus Christ.

By the guidance of the Holy Spirit, God already promised to save all mankind by pouring out the Holy Spirit, the spirit of Jesus Christ in the last days through several prophets, especially Prophet Joel in the Old Testament Period about over 2,800 years ago (Joel 2:28-32, Ac 2:17-21). God said, “Your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants, I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” The guidance of the Holy Spirit is to reveal and guide God’s law directly into our minds by the Holy Spirit using such a way even today. By doing so, all prophecies in the New and Old Testament that God would teach ‘good’ directly are fulfilled and terminated (Jn 6:45, Heb 8:10, Jer 31:33, Isa 54:13).

“...They shall all be taught of God” (Jn 6:45).

“I will put my laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts” (Heb 8:10).

“I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it...” (Jer 31:33).

“All your sons will be taught of the Lord...” (Isa 54:13).

Like this, the incident of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Bible ends with salvation that God will restore lost mankind to the Garden of Eden by teaching ‘good’ directly.

As described above, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which made mankind fall in the power of death and have a horrible history, refers to human judgment and condemnation regarding good and evil. Despite the judgment to distinguish between good and evil is God’s own inherent authority, human beings ignore the existence of God, the Creator; judge everything and act by their own wisdom and knowledge, and they even deny the existence of God after the incident of the tree of the knowledge. As a result, man has lost ‘good’ and received only suffering and disasters that resulted from evil. It is Adam who was in the center of the incident of the tree of the knowledge which brought such a result.

As Adam was a real person, the Bible verifies the evidence by the family tree which leads down from Adam to Cain and to Abraham. Also, the trace of having lived in the Garden of Eden remained in human beings so that they are constantly living with yearning and longing for happiness. However, there is no happiness for only human beings excluding God. Even if there is happiness, that happiness is merely incomplete forever. Therefore, the Bible says, “Even in laughter the heart may be in pain, and the end of joy may be grief” (Pr 14:13). True happiness can be obtained when mankind goes back to the bosom of God and lives according to ‘good’ i.e. the word of God because he is created by the image of God. In order to gain wealth and long life on this earth, you should keep the Law. In addition, in order to have the kingdom of heaven which is the perfect happiness, you should follow the law of the Holy Spirit. Accordingly, not receiving the guidance of ‘good’ is the same as once again eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil which Adam ate, thus it becomes lawlessness. Jesus Christ said to the people who practiced lawlessness like this, “Depart from me.”

“I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness” (Mt 7:23).

Therefore, the core of the gospel that Apostle Paul cried out was to be filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18). Through the fullness of the Spirit, you are led by the Spirit; and the guided word i.e. the law of God is ‘light’ (Ps 119:105). Since the ‘light’ is mainly delivered through the church, it is declared that the church is the pillar of the truth. Accordingly, the church has a duty to deliver the ‘good’. By doing so, at last, human beings gain freedom from darkness due to the ‘good’ and also it prevents the destruction of the world. Therefore, Christianity is the only religion of salvation.

(cf.)

Love: Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, love does not boast, it is not proud, it is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres (1Co 13:4-7).

Flesh: Sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies (Gal 5:19-21).

Today God speaks to mankind as follows.

Now it is time for judgment of God, the last days. God’s judgment means to throw out and burn down everything which God did not plant. By doing so, God intends to protect the order of all things and ‘good’ that God created. In the Bible, the signs of the last days are already prophesied as follows.

The first signs:

(1) People will be lovers of themselves, (2) lovers of money, (3) boastful, (4) proud, (5) abusive (6) disobedient to their parents (7) ungrateful (8) unholy (9) without love (10) unforgiving (11) slanderous (12) without self-control (13) brutal (14) not lovers of the good (15) treacherous (16) rash (17) conceited (18) lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God (19) having a form of godliness but denying its power (2Ti 3:1-5). Because lawless is increased, most people’s love will grow cold (Mt 24:12) and the abomination that causes desolation will stand in the holy place (Mt 24:15). Abnormal trends and social phenomena will spring up like bamboo shoots after rain and the righteous shall suffer.

The second signs:

Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famine, and pestilence in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven (Lk 21:10-11). Such phenomena show that “the last days” is near. As a result of living a careless life without keeping the order which is the law of God, human beings face such suffering today. Even though people in every nation in the world earnestly want to have heroes who can save them from such suffering, there are no such heroes. A hero is only the person who lives a life by keeping the God’s law which was made and established by God.

Accordingly, due to the promise of the Law, Christian countries which keep the word of God and the Law inevitably become hegemonic powers and developed countries without fail. On the other hand, countries committed lawless acts, i.e. countries done wickedness for their own interest; dictatorial countries; countries caused chaos and disturbed the peace of the world; countries committed to environmental destruction; countries insisted on possessing nuclear weapons to cause the destruction of human race, etc. are inevitably judged by starvation, famine, various diseases, rare diseases, natural disasters such as severe drought, etc. The judgment has been executed by returning back to them like a boomerang as much as 4-77 folds of the accumulation of their wickedness. Through this judgment, all human beings should understand the great lesson that man shall not live on bread alone, but ‘good’ word that comes from the mouth of God. Until understanding this, human beings can not help but live a fruitless life by repetition of sowing and reaping in tribulation and suffering.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit who is the spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ says.

The grass withers and flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! All honor and glory to God alone forever and ever! Amen.