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Volume 1 -THE GARDEN OF EDEN - Adam's Creation and His
Volume 2 - NEW BEGINNING AND NEW WORLD ENVIRONMENT Volume 3 - JOSEPH, EPHRAIM AND MANASSEH - A Foreshadow of God's Agenda for Jew and Gentile Volume 4 - CROSSING THE JORDAN RIVER - A Foreshadow of Salvation for Jew and Gentile Volume 5 - THE BOOK OF REVELATION - God's Agenda for the End Time Volume 6 - THE SEVEN LETTERS TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES Volume 7 - CHRIST IN THE TABERNACLE - A Foreshadow of Redemption **************** |
(An excerpt from Volume 4 - CROSSING THE JORDAN RIVER - A Foreshadow of Salvation for Jew and Gentile) ********************************* The chasm is a boundary (gulf) between light (immortal life) and darkness (mortal death) that God set in place in Genesis 1:3-4. This chasm was set in place between Adam and the kingdom of God when Adam was banished from the Garden of Eden, so he could not access the Tree of Life and live forever. God cannot allow fallen mortal man (separated from God) to enter the Kingdom of God. He blocked the way into paradise by stationing angels with flaming swords. When God cast Adam and Eve out of paradise due to their sin of disobedience, it was a curse upon them. From that day forward, they will suffer as they struggle to survive apart from God. Adam will suffer painful toil as he works the ground or works in the earth to provide for himself and his family. Eve will suffer pain bearing their children. When comparing a life where God was the source of all their daily needs prior to their sin, to a sinful life struggling for daily provision by the sweat of the brow and painful toil, the curse is very apparent to all who struggle to survive. Genesis 3:17-24 (NIV) - To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. (18) It will produce thorns and thistles for you,and you will eat the plants of the field. (19) By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." (20) Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. (21) The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. (22) And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." (23) So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. (24) After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. The ground was cursed by God after He returned to the Garden of Eden and confronted Adam and Eve about their disobedience. When they were banished from the garden to work the ground it began their days of suffering for their daily provision. God did not abandoned them while they tilled the ground and struggled, the Holy Spirit strove with them and their descendents to lead them in the paths of obedience and submission. But, their restoration could not be complete until their debt of sin was remitted, until then they remain mortals (subject to death and belonging to this world). So, God provided a way to temporally atone for their sins by the blood sacrifice of animals. Of which, the skins were used as clothing - verse 21. The blood of animals would suffice until the day God provided an everlasting atonement through the death of His Son, Christ Jesus. Their faith in the sacrificial blood of animals for the atonement of their sins, would open a way to have a reverent relationship with God. A step in the right direction, so to speak. God would be with them until Christ Jesus bore the sins of mankind on the cross and paid their sin debt. After which, God would be in them permanently! This is God's provision of immortality. After many years the descendents of Adam continued their descent into total mortality and God was grieved He had made man - Genesis 6:5-8 (KJV) - The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. (6) The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. (7) So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth--men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have made them." (8) But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. See Volume 2 - Chapter 1 for an in-depth study of God's decision to flood the earth. The flood changed the environment and man's struggle to survive from the land greatly increased. The water canopy above the firmament (sky) collapsed during the forty days and night of torrential rain. Up until this time the water canopy shielded the earth from the radiant heat of the sun, as well as other types of radiation from the cosmos. After the flood the heat from the sun created the equator edged on the north and south by the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The sea around the equator warmed and created ocean currents which contributed to the warming of the air above the sea and Trade Winds were energized by the warm ocean currents. The polar regions iced over and Arctic wind currents would now collide with the warm air currents creating Jet Streams and caused weather phenomenon, as we know it today. The weather patterns would then fluctuate and greatly affect the earth and the ability to sow and reap from the ground. After the flood, man would have to accept crop failures due to droughts, excessive rain fall, hail, sleet, ice storms, blizzards, floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, tornados, lightning, etc. See Volume 1 - Adam's Physical and Spiritual Environments and go to Chapter 4 - Adam's Physical Environment for an indepth study of pre-flood earth's environment. The intensity of the curse after the flood increased and is passed on to all generations until the day God restores heaven and earth after the millennium - Revelation 21:1. Therefore, when disaster occurs due to nature's reeking havoc with our lives, don't blame God. Blame sin! **************************************** The chasm is an area of life man must cross through to get to the other side where Christ is seated. The chasm between earth and the kingdom of God was set in place by God. Christ's death on the cross not only saves man and provides a way to the other side of the chasm, His death delivers believers from the curse of sin (chasm) because our sin debt was paid and we were reconciled to God. However, satan attempts to use the curse upon man as a boundary, attempting to get believers to doubt God's Word and His promises. But, Christ's death on the cross parted the chasm (the waters of affliction) and through faith provides a way for believers to follow Him to the other side where there's the promises of God. Christ is the Way! By faith believers will be victorious over the issues of life (trouble) because God has promised such victory - Psalms 34:6-7 (NIV) - This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. (7) The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. Psalms 34:19-20 (NIV) - A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; (20) he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken. Psalms 34:17-18 (NIV) - The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. (18) The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. See Near Death Experiences for evidence of spiritual existence after we depart this dimension of life. To cross the chasm into the kingdom of God, our spiritual souls must be saved through re-birth by the renewing of our minds through the Word of God. The carnal un-regenerate spirit of man can't cross over! Near death experiences prove that the spiritual dimension can observe this mortal dimension, but the mortal dimension cannot observe or in any other way sense the spiritual dimension. So, don't be deceived by our inability to tangibly connect with the spiritual dimension. Faith in the Bible is our only tangible evidence to the spiritual dimension - Hebrews 11:1 (KJV) - Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
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