Is Forever Really Forever?

I looked up the word Forever in the dictionary and here is what came up:

For all future time; for always.
Without ever ending; eternally.

When you see the term forever in the bible do you automatically think it means for all future time or  never-ending for all eternity?  Did you know that biblically that is not accurate?

In 1 Samuel Chapter 1 Hannah pledges her son Samuel to serve the Lord in the temple "all the days of his life" (verse 11) and that he is being lent to God "as long as he lives" (verse 28).  In other words "for life."  But verse 22 demonstrates that forever means for life.  Obviously she realized Samuel would die one day so when Hannah says her son will abide in the temple performing service to God forever she meant until he died.  Here are the verses I'm referring too:

1 Samuel 1:22  But Hannah went not up; for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord, and there abide for ever.

1 Samuel 1:11  And she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.

1 Samuel 1:28  therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there.

Now I'm going to show you a couple of things from Exodus regarding laws that were declared by God to be in place forever but were later abolished, which again proves that biblically forever does NOT mean for all future time.  These involve the duties of the priests in the tabernacle.  Keep in mind God knows the end from the beginning, so He knew the man-made temple was going to be replaced by the temple of the body... so when He said the temple services would be required forever He meant until a time appointed when they would be abolished.  Let's see if the bible backs up what I'm saying.  Here are 2 examples of God declaring temple services to be statutes forever:

Exodus 27:21 In the tabernacle of the congregation without the veil, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall [cause the lamp to burn] from evening to morning before the Lord: it shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.

Exodus 29:28 And it shall be Aaron's and his sons' by a statute for ever from the children of Israel: for it is an heave offering: and it shall be an heave offering from the children of Israel of the sacrifice of their peace offerings, even their heave offering unto the Lord.

God no longer requires either of those statutes to be performed anymore does He?  Of course not, since He doesn't dwell in a temple made of hands anymore.  And there are many other examples of statutes which we were told would be in effect "forever" that are no long valid found in Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

So either forever means for all future time and God is a liar or forever really means for a limited amount of time which God determines. 

Hebrews chapter 9 talks about those "forever statutes" from the Old Testament only being imposed on God's people until the time of reformation (when Christ died and the new covenant went into effect).  Here it is in context:

Hebrews 9:8 The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:
Hebrews 9:9 Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;
Hebrews 9:10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances [statutes], imposed on them until the time of reformation.

I believe I just showed you enough evidence that forever doesn't necessarily mean for all future time.  But I also know it's very difficult to let go of longstanding beliefs so please pray on this if you are having trouble accepting this notion.  Please keep in mind what our modern definition of a word means doesn't matter; what matters is what a word meant when the pen was put to the paper.

Now you might be saying to yourself what difference does it make?  Well, if you are really searching for the truth about what the bible says with all of your heart then it matters because Christians should always want the truth. 

Amen.

In some of my upcoming  posts I will show where the bible says...

• People will burn in hellfire until they die, not for all of eternity.
• People do not go to heaven or hell right after they die but have to wait until they are resurrected by Jesus.
• People do not have immortal souls or live as disembodied spirits after they die; in fact they only go to heaven or hell when their physical body is resurrected.
• The word hell biblically means grave, not an eternally burning underworld as is commonly believed.

Prove All Things PART 2

I love how the LORD works!!!  If you look at my previous blog entry Prove All Things; Hold Fast That Which Is Good you'll notice it was originally posted on Friday, March 25th 2016.  This follow-up on Sunday the 27th was inspired because of a couple of things that happened on Saturday which tie in with Friday's post.  In it I spoke of the importance of using the bible to prove whether or not someone's prophetic claims are true or not. I also put the following quote; "Whatever our opinion of the messenger has no bearing on whether what he or she said is true".  For example I think Pastor Rick Warren, author of the terrible bestselling book The Purpose Driven Life, is a false prophet.  He preaches new age self-centered humanism but calls it Christianity.  He also claims Islam's Allah and our God are the same which is ridiculous.  We typically think of prophecy as foretelling the future but it's a more than just that.  To prophesy simply means to speak on God's behalf things He has revealed to you which is what Warren claims to do.  I knew people who thought Warren words were as good as gold just because he made them feel good.  Sadly those people didn't care.  Isaiah and Paul warned their would be Christians who only want to hear "smooth things" "having itching ears" who "turn away their ears from the truth."  The problem isn't just that there are false prophets out there; another problem is there are Christians who seek them out because they refuse to prove all things.  So sad.

Isaiah 30:10 [Rebellious people] Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they [lukewarm Christians] will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
2 Timothy 4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

We don't want to be found lacking on the day of judgment which is what we are in danger of if we refuse to prove all things.  Paul warned people would perish "because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved" (2 Thessalonians 2:10).

Okay now here's why I said I love how the LORD works; His timing is amazing!  No sooner did I blog about using the bible to prove all things, but also made a specific point to say your opinion of the messenger doesn't prove or disprove the truth.  I just told you my opinion of Rick Warren's teachings, but just because I don't trust him doesn't mean everything he says is wrong.   Case in point Warren preaches Jesus is the Son of God and He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.  Those things are true and can be backed up with scripture right?  Of course.  So would it be wise for me to say everything Rick Warren says is wrong because some of it is wrong?  Certainly not.

The day after I posted my Prove All Things blog entry I was made aware of a video revealing many proven false prophecies by a women who died early in the 20th century.  Her name was Ellen G. White and she was a major player in the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church during its formative decades.  She is still highly regarded to this day in some circles and a case could be made that some people even go so far as to worship her. 

I attended a handful of SDA churches services in the spring and summer of 2012 but stopped attending when I became convinced the pastor was muzzling his sermons to avoid controversy.  However I did attend online services with a different church from September 2012 until March or April 2015.  This church had beliefs very similar to the SDA and I shared many of those beliefs.  To this day I still share those beliefs and I think doctrinally they were far more solid than any other church I've attended.  But as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:12 "For now we see through a glass, darkly" only understanding the truth of God and the bible in part. 

Anyway that church held Ellen White's writings in regard and so did I.  Now keep in mind she wrote dozens of books and I surely didn't read everything.  I saw a few things here and there that I wasn't too sure of, but mostly shrugged it off or did some mental gymnastics to validate it.  But really most of what I saw didn't bother me and was probably a lot less heretical than what you would find in modern day Christian bookstores. At any rate I didn't focus too much on her writings.  I focused on the bible.  One thing I did do every Sabbath while part of that church was to get with the church online and we'd read some of her stuff for an hour, but the topics would be stuff like living healthy, why it was spiritually safer to live in the country rather than the sin-soaked big cities, that sort of thing.  Now if you typed Ellen White's name in a search engine you could find all kinds of info about her writings and frankly now I realize she said some very heretical things.

My wife also attended online services with that church but only for 2 or 3 months.  We weren't married at the time.  We left when an ugly spirit of gossip and hostility was revealed to be part of the fabric of the church from some church members in good standing to the lead pastor as well.  So be it.

Getting back to the main topic, proving all things biblically means you are able to match your beliefs with the bible.  Whether Ellen White or anybody else for that matter is a false prophet, if what that person says matches scripture then it's still true.  That's the standard.

In the year since I've left that church I have never once cited Ellen White to defend my beliefs.  Not Once.  I've used plenty of scripture though and I make a sincere effort to use it correctly in context. 

On Saturday night (the day after I posted my previous blog entry) at a service I attended the pastor was talking about the book of Esther.  He asked if anybody knew what Mordecai's relationship with Esther was and I blurted out "he was her uncle".  Ester 2:7 reveals they were actually cousins (Esther was the daughter of Mordecai's uncle).  Now it turns out the belief that he was her uncle is a very common misconception.  Try going to Google or Bing and put "Esther's uncle" in the search box; you'll see I'm not the only one who made that mistake.  So clearly a lot of people are taught at their churches to believe the same thing.

I was a little embarrassed but keep in mind I've never done a study on Esther and Mordecai's relationship. Really didn't give it a lot of thought. In this case I was guilty of just believing what I was told.  I have however done in-depth studies on topics that really captured my interest... and I found out that many things taught at many churches are wrong.  On matters of doctrine have you done the same?  I still hold to many of the truths I held from my previous church because I did verify them to be true.  Ultimately that's the primary thing I want to do with my blog, share my beliefs about doctrine using scripture to back them up.  I hope my blog can prove to be profitable spiritually for anyone who spends some time here.

Amen.

Prove All Things; Hold Fast That Which Is Good.

To speak prophetically means to proclaim something God revealed to you.   When speaking of the end times Joel 2:28 said there would be many who prophesy in these days but the tricky part is discerning whether it is true prophecy or not.  1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 tells us not to despise prophesying's (in other words don't just automatically scoff at or dismiss someone's prophetic claims) but test it first.  If it's biblically solid hold fast to it as truth.

1 Thessalonians 5:20 Despise not prophesyings.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
 

The apostle John put it another way when he said:

1 John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

I think of it like this:

·    God is the Judge of all things. 

·    We are like detectives who have to go before God in His court of law to prove the things we have been told are either lies or the truth. 

·    Our witness as to whether or not we've been told the truth is the bible.   As a detective questions a witness to a crime to ascertain the truth, so we are to read the bible to learn if what we've been told is really of God.

Whatever our opinion of the messenger has no bearing on whether what he or she said is true.  Likewise whether we like or don't like what we heard has no bearing on whether or not it's true either. 

Sometimes we believe something because it "feels right".  Is there anything wrong with that?  Possibly.  Where the problem lies is when we don't investigate further.  Using the detective analogy again, sometimes detectives have a "hunch" about something but going before a judge and just saying I had a hunch the suspect is guilty won't get a conviction.  They have to follow up on the hunch and find evidence to back it up right? 

Well as Christians we sometimes have "hunches" too but instead of saying "I have a hunch" we might say "the Holy Spirit revealed" this or that to me.  But is it safe or wise to accept something because it feels right?  I'm not aware of anywhere in the bible telling us to trust our hearts or go with our emotions - but I have seen where God says to reason together with Him (Isaiah 1:18).  Reasoning is using logic.  Going with your heart or trusting your feelings is letting your emotions do the thinking for you.  The bible warns us to test the spirits and prove all things because God knows we let our emotions get the better of us far too often. 

We all know the bible uses words as symbols.  Can a symbol in the bible mean anything you want it too?  I certainly don't think so.  Case in point; in bible prophecy a beast represents a king or a kingdom (see Daniel 7:17 and 7:23).  Suppose I had a hunch the beast was mankind in general because we treat each other so badly... "we behave like beasts!" I might say.  Then I might think the mark of the beast is simply hatred for other people.  I might even be fully convinced the Holy Spirit revealed that to me, but did He?  If you believe something that doesn't harmonize with scripture then no, it was not from the Holy Spirit no matter how right it felt.

Prove all things. 

Be like the people of the city of Berea from Acts 17:10-11.  They searched the scriptures daily to see if the things they were told were true.

Amen.