The GOLDEN RULE of interpretation is still true. WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE OF SCRIPTURE MAKES COMMON SENSE, SEEK NO OTHER SENSE!!!!
This is a good rule of interpretation to follow. With this in mind some have erroneously taught that various verses in Genesis suggest that Eve had children prior to the Genesis Fall and that people and entire cities existed before the children of Cain and Abel. Some have gone so far to say that some kind of Pre-Adamic race or previous earth-age existed before Adam that was destroyed because of sin and they actually call it a previous earth age. This reasoning is faulty. First, In Genesis 1:31 God said that all His creation (including the angelic world) was good. This could not be true if there was a previous Adamic race existing on earth prior to Adam’s creation that was deceived by Satan. Second, if God allowed death to occur before Adam, then God is the author of death. The Bible says Adam (not God or Satan) is the author of death (I Cor. 15:21); therefore, no human race fell before Adam’s time. Not until man deliberately rejected the known will of God did death make its first appearance on this planet (Romans 5:12). Third, and more importantly, the Bible clearly tells us that Adam was the first man that God created. Let the Bible speak for itself. (Read More »)
The following is from Awake My Heart, a daily devotional book by J. Sidlow Baxter. I have been enjoying it very much since picking it up a few weeks ago.
True consecration to Christ simplifies life, for it leaves the management to HIM. It also unifies life, for it blends all our motives and activities in on all-controlling aim to please HIM. It purifies life, for it expels all that is disapproved by HIM. It amplifies life, for it gives the divine will spacious fulfillment through us to uplift HIM. And it glorifies life, for it makes us a blessing to others and a praise to HIM. (Read More »)
“Only evil continually.” Now that is a perfect description of unredeemed men and women of any era—including our own. Human beings are not basically good. Because of the curse brought about by Adam’s sin (see Gen. 3 and Rom. 5), human beings are basically bad—completely sinful. How can I say such a thing? We can look around the world and see good things being attempted and noble tasks being achieved. But the problem is not simply with our attempts and our achievements. The problem is with our hearts. Until we come to bow the knee to Jesus Christ as King of the universe, our own agendas remain on the thrones of our hearts—we are without God in the world. And that means that even our best acts are godless acts. And for all the good that homeless shelters, cancer research, or AIDS orphanages will do on this earth, those efforts will not carry over to eternity unless they are done in the name of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Read More »)
Jack Lamb