Sometimes, anti-Christian activists will seek to portray God as cruel as per the "little" sin in Eden creating a massive horror story for human history. However, we can respond to it because the things men did in history, even from Cain to begin with, were far more evil than eating a forbidden fruit. In other words, God knew that the little disobedience was due to a larger problem. It wasn't merely one-time slip-up, but a disregard-of-God or God-violating problem. We can argue that, the smaller the request to obey, the larger the violation.

God made it easy. Adam had the world of trees to chose from, and only one forbidden tree. It wasn't because he was half-starving to death that he forsook God, but rather God knew that He had been neglected, disregarded, even despised, even though he gave the first couple a grand world, beautiful skies, and life itself with all its needs. Doesn't the atheist consider that part of the original sin?

God knew that deep sin was inevitable, and history has proven it. There hasn't been one generation in which man's inhumanity to man has not been placed on full display. If Adam would disregard God over merely a tempting fruit, he would also fail Him in darker matters. Is it a small sin to disregard God? No, it is the chief sin. It breaks the greatest command necessary to go forward in God's economy.

It's not about the fruit, it's about the choice to go it alone without God. Is God cruel because he doesn't allow mankind to leave Him behind as a non-starter in human history? Where will he get the rains for his foods? Who will protect him from dangers? Why should God keep his part of the bargain while mankind betrays Him, dishonors Him? What about that part of the argument, atheist, why don't you show more integrity by including that into your accusations?

This is why keeping God in mind "daily" (not every hour of the day every day) is the right way forward, because we have got to do human society with Him included. This is why keeping the Sabbath was important to Him, because it showed respect for week by week. It wasn't because rest is God's demand for rest's sake. I think the reasonable command was useful as God's thermometer for checking how much love the people had for Him. If they disregarded the Sabbath, they were doing the Eden thing all over again, because, instead of asking the Israelites to do difficult feats as the Sabbath-day demand, He just asked for NO WORK. How could it get any easier? Yet there were those whose love for money, or whose trust in God was absent, decided that working on the Sabbath, to make money, was the better choice.

I don't see anything wrong with Christians keeping the Sabbath, though not as some religious Jews keep it. It's not a part of the Temple laws that Jesus did away with, but is one of the 10 commandments, which is why I choose to keep it, because all other nine were still God's commands when into the New Covenant in Jesus.

I don't think that the Sabbath rest disallows cooking or playing basketball with the kids on the driveway. I think the fire and hole-digging that was disallowed was for those who wanted to honor it by not making money, but who thought that it was a good day to burn the weeds or brush, or get rid of the garbage. The Mosaic Law did not forbid walking on the Sabbath, but the Jewish leaders extended the rules, made them more stringent to the point of ridiculous at times.

The Sabbath was a weekly thermometer check to the person too. It was a stepping stone to fuller obedience. It allows one to show gratitude for the kindnesses of God, and how can this be a bad thing? But the Israelites spurned the Sabbath because they had no gratitude. They were going it alone in a dog-eat-dog society...the fruit of atheism.

Sometimes God could set up a special situation where some forbidden work became semi-critical for a person, but where it wasn't as critical as saving a sheep fallen into a pit. In that special set-up, God wants to check whether the person will deny doing the semi-critical work, and trust Him for things turning out for the better by suffering some loss, gladly if possible. It could get tough, but what's a test if it isn't tough?

Yet, it's our thermometer too because we can gauge our own decisions in those semi-critical situations. We can feel good about ourselves whenever we deny doing something that promises harm to our lives. But if you're reading this and decide it's a good idea to obey God in trust because we get more out of it than we lose, then we are missing it. The only requirement is to make God happy, not by what we may gain for it because that's dirty obedience, a drink of polluted waters.

There's all kinds of grey areas for Sabbath keeping if we think that God disallows exertion of our bodies. I don't think that's what God meant by "rest." He clearly stated that it was a halt to the normal routine of working life. What don't we understand about that? There was to be no selling of foods, no buying foods, on the Sabbath, and so I think we should extend that to the modern day.

An example of a semi-critical situation is where someone gets all foods stolen on Friday evening. It led to the choice of visiting the local farmer or butcher on the Sabbath, and whether just enough food to make it through the one day is to be purchased, or, what-the-heck, why not just buy for the whole week now that we're there? I have no idea whether God would consider it a sin to buy food on the Sabbath just for that one day alone, but I do think it would show Him some honor to suffer hunger pains until Saturday evening or Sunday morning. When in doubt, go for it and deny thyself, because storing treasures in Heaven is all about doing what we know or think Jesus would do. Being mindful of Him daily is the very first act of respect.

Jesus did not die simply to forgive sins. His mission was to correct mankind, to bring Him into a mindset that understands the need to honor the Creator. His mission is to make us one with God, which is how God wanted Adam and Eve to be. How is that evil of God, to want to be one with the atheist, to go forward TOGETHER, to meet the challenges as a team? Yes, but the crude and cruel atheist wants nothing to do with obedience to Him, that's his ground-zero problem, and while he accuses God, he doesn't see that part of his own self.

I suspect something wrong with Christians who do not want to keep the Sabbath. They might keep "Easter," and call it that instead of "Passover," and they might think that having "daily devotions" is proper, but, in that case, why not also keep the Sabbath? Imagine how happy it would make God to sacrifice your job for another if it requires work on Saturday?

Paul did not teach the gentiles to forsake the Sabbath, but rather reinforced Sabbath keeping as a good thing, an opportunity to honor God:

One man esteems one day [the weekly Sabbath especially] above another: another esteems every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He who regards the day regards it unto the Lord; and he that doesn't regard it, to the Lord he doesn't regard it..." (Romans 14:5-6).

I don't think Paul is saying that it's just as dandy to forsake the Sabbath as it is to honor it. It sounds more like he's saying that ignoring it is ignoring God on that particular matter, yet it also sounds as though he's unsure of whether to enforce the Sabbath for all "his" churches, and so you-all make up your own minds. Where he says that some esteem every day alike, he's definitely not saying that we can routinely ignore God everyday, but rather he's saying that some might rather choose to make everyday a holiness challenge, not just on Sabbaths.

I believe "serving" God can become dangerous when it's done by the feet, so to speak, rather than sincerely. "Sincerity" is a BIG WORD. If we obey Paul by giving thanks in all circumstances, might we not become mouthers of thanksgiving? We are not to GIVE thanks, but we are to BE thankful. I'm sure that Paul meant it that way even if he used "give" instead of "be."

And so if you mouth thanks to God for every meal and cookie time too, how lackluster does it soon become? Imagine the vanity that creeps in by repeating the Lord's Prayer everyday just because you think God demands it. We don't see anything of that sort in all the Bible, for God is concerned about much bigger things in us. That's why I stopped giving thanks before every meal, because it seems like an insult to God to give a wee-ounce three times a day. Free yourself from that sort of by-feet "obedience." Instead, I'd rather feel thankful with ten pounds of sincerity. A few sincere episodes is much better than daily rote.

This is not to say that if you give thanks before every meal that it's not always sincere, but that God never demanded every-meal devotionals of His people, and so if you are doing it because you feel it's a sin not to, it can easily become cheap, without value, the tying on of unnecessary loads that Jesus accused the Pharisees and scribes of. Why not also wash your hands (as the Pharisees did unnecessarily) before meals as part of your holiness routine? See what I'm saying?

I'm not suggesting that doing small things for God is cheap, for when one does the small things that actually do please God, it's a big deal. What I'm saying is that doing small things that do not please God is a legalistic burden that we place on our backs. It's of no value to sacrifice a delicacy for God when you don't simultaneously get closer to God, or do something beneficial to others, for the whole purpose of fasting is to get closer to God, not to show how mightily you can deny yourself foods. When Jesus said that it's "lawful to do good on the Sabbath", he meant that it's more than lawful, it's the goal.

Sacrifice is not sacrifice if not done for others. As we all sin, we all need to get closer to God at times, and this can be a sacrifice done for Him. But not merely the getting closer, for God doesn't relish a dirtball coming close to Him, unless the dirtball is shaking out the dirt. The cleaner we are when we get closer to God, the more we can enjoy it, at which time it's no longer a sacrifice, but more like a party. The sacrifice part of it is in the shaking off of the dirt. That's where the profit to God resides.

If I say, Lord, I'm running 20 miles this Saturday to show how devoted I am to you, what good is such a sacrifice? You may as well be a pedlar of vaticanite tradition. You may as well lock yourself up in a monastery, which Jesus would never do, as an act of devotion.

If you have no way of helping someone on a Sabbath, because you don't think you can invite yourself over to the home of someone in need of company, invite that person to your own home. It's lawful to cook special meals for someone, on the Sabbath, when doing it for God, to relieve someone of loneliness, to make someone feel wanted, feel worth, feel glad. The Sabbath was made for man. Or, if nobody is available, ask Jesus to come sit with you as you eat, and "help yourself to some figs, Lord, the whole plate if you like."

Yes, Jesus died to forgive our future sins too, but it's NECESSARY that we confess them to Jesus with appropriate sunken heart, and to the Father too. Why should we be burdened by the confessions? Can't we just forget them and go forward with a clean conscience? Do we live as if the sins were uncommitted just because they were forgiven 2,000 years ago? No, but when we cross God, we disappoint Him. Do we treat that disappointment without concern? "Hey, Lord, come feast on my figs, and never mind that I sinned yesterday, it's all good." He's not showing up. If you ask for something, He's not showing up. If I repeat the sin, he's not showing up.

If He shows up because you did both good and bad yesterday, He's not showing up happy for you because he sees how much treasure you squandered on the bad. Jesus is not going to rejoice with my rejoicing if I've crossed His Father. As the Father feels, Jesus feels, but if I confess appropriate to the violation, even the Father will forgive me. For a sincere Christian, the guilt is part of the self-inflicted punishment, but if there is no sense of guilt, that's just heaping one sin onto another.

In the same way as giving thanks can become a mere mouthing, so can confession, especially if one thinks that confession to a vaticanite "priest" is sufficient for God. SPIT! By that one thing alone, you can know that vaticanite churches have been a satanic bastion historically, right into the 20th century for all, and most churches even into the 21st century. How can anyone trade confession directly to God for confession to a fellow sinner? UNTHINKABLE, yet the vatican did not fear God when installing this tradition.

Where the New Testament says once that we ought to, or should consider, confessing our sins to one another, it doesn't mean setting up catholic confessionals. Nor does it mean that confessing sins to another person absolves us from making appropriate confession to God in our prayer closet at home. You don't even need to mouth the words of a confession if, when you think of what you did in light of how it violated God's heart, you break out in tears. In my opinion, this is most of the way through the confession. From that point, you don't need to say much.

Small sins are easy, but for the deeper-cutting sins, we might want to give God excuses as to why we did it. There might be some value in that, but if we're trying to make the sin less dark by the excuses, then it's a partial confession only. Therefore, as your reward, God might give you the best apple-tree harvest you've had in years, but with worms. If God is punishing me for a violation, be very happy because He's taking time out to correct me.

For as long as this history continues, God's major concern by far is the sin problem. Sorry, but one step at a time. In the Next Age, where sin is done away with, the major concern will be something else. God's attitude toward us will then change...if we make it to the Next Age. We need to respect the Sacrifice of Jesus enough to greatly minimize our sins, if we had been scarlet-red sinners. We are fools for Jesus because we had previously been fools. We can't fix it easily, but keep it up, keep on going, don't give up, conquer as well as you can, and when you are breathing your last, when the work of Faith is all finished, commit your spirit to God.

Enter the Rest. It's not a place where you lie on a couch all day like a religious Jew. God's Rest is rest from trials and tribulations, free from a world run by sinners, rest from demonic influences in your personal life, free from fears, rest from paying the bills, and free from the tax man.

Have proper perspective. This history is not the place where God rejoices, but where He frowns and suffers. Don't be the fool who thinks that God wants us to pursue our happiness as per the American constitution. This is the place where we put off the pursuit of happiness, and put on the joy of undeserved salvation instead, until the Day of the Lord brings a new thing, happiness thick and wide in all directions. Pursue that happiness by keeping on, and if you are poor in money with a lousy place to live, pursue interior richness with God while doing an abundance of good things without blowing the trumpets. This is not complicated.

As part of the fight of Faith, we are to allow God His important choice of remaining invisible to mankind such that everyone does what they wish such that all may be judged accordingly. A police or court officer cannot test a man for criminal inclinations if the officer is always alongside him. The criminal won't commit crimes if the officer is always present. But if they think there is no God, then they freely do what they wish if they think they can get away with it, yet God is recording it all, so to speak, even the thoughts, even the words at conspiracies.

He gives people much time to get on Straight Street, and this is what this present history is much about: God granting EVERYBODY ample opportunity for salvation. Those who get saved need to wait things out, and of course this is the time to shake out the dirt, not collect more dust. If we're tired of waiting, consider Jesus waiting 2,000 years and counting. But waiting is not bad if we are doing things, and much better if we are doings things for God. You will find these very ideas in the New Testament if you're new to it.

Why is it that Mike Winger can see the dangers of vaticanism, but devoted catholics cannot?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=595FqQDuBaw

Follow up by Mike Winger on the counterfeit nastiness of the vatican:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AsPuOxVZKw

NEWS

If you live in the north, cooped up inside for months over the winter, you should probably take at least 2,000 IU's of vitamin D, not the suggested 600 on the label. :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ0Dm6ULLAw

"Yes, artificial UVB light can trigger the body to produce Vitamin D, acting as an effective 'sunshine supplement'. Specialized UV lamps and some tanning beds emitting UVB (specifically in the 293-298 nm range) catalyze the conversion of 7-dehydrocholesterol into vitamin in human skin, similar to natural sunlight." However, that's from the NIH (National Institutes of Health), which people no longer trust. It could be exaggerating the vitamin-D production from such lamps.

In the first three or four minutes of the following, you will see a bad case of a wealthy fundamentalist preacher, John Hagee, becoming such an extreme Zionist that I'm guessing he's being paid off to be one, because he's so obviously violating Scripture. Many years ago, I heard him say that he was post-tribulational, but then he started to preach the pre-trib theory, and so that may have been the start of his Zionist tripping. There's nothing more to learn after the first few minutes if you already know why his doctrine is wrong in the first few:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxl5CigZN2E

Here's an interesting take on Trump's controversial post of not many days ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjtbFNsuIPk

Just think of how bad the situation is when people who know their Bible well are yet pushing Trump as a God-send. I see Trump as a deliberate deceiver / manipulator, who takes pride in it, same as satan. I suggest not following Trump news much more than acknowledging the headlines only.

I believe that there are crisis-actor teams employed by the U.S. government that need to be kept to work on a routine basis, meaning that we can expect a constant stream of fake jobs, and this latest attempt on Trump, this week, has the markings of just another fake job. There is evidence that Israel has its own crisis-actor teams inside the United States that often works with the U.S. government in what has become suspect as a CIA-Israeli partnership, at least loosely, when the two can scratch each others' backs.

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NEXT UPDATE

Here's all four Gospels wrapped into one story.

For Some Prophetic Proof for Jesus as the Predicted Son of God.
Also, you might like this related video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3EjmxJYHvM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efl7EpwmYUs

Pre-Tribulation Preparation for a Post-Tribulation Rapture

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