San’s family journal

Lately I have been spending a lot of time in my church online forum and I come across one interesting question posted by one of the members. He asked why fairness is. Why there are rich people and also poor people?

I have written an article on the justice of God and when I started to rethink the question in the fairness point of view, I started to realize that fairness is not a universal definition for a Christian. It is actually a personal definition where whether it is fair or not, it is totally depends on how thankful a person to God on what has been bestowed unto him by God.

When a person thinks that the world is not being fair to him, the reason is most probably he is lacking in someway. When a person is not lacking, most probably he will not think of the problem of fairness. If we are grateful to God about the thinks we have, it is not likely that we will think of ourselves are in any kind of lacking. Thus we will not envy others for having things that we do no possess.

2Co 9:7  You should each give, then, as you have decided, not with regret or out of a sense of duty; for God loves the one who gives gladly.

2Co 9:8  And God is able to give you more than you need, so that you will always have all you need for yourselves and more than enough for every good cause.

2Co 9:9  As the scripture says, “He gives generously to the needy; his kindness lasts forever.”

2Co 9:10  And God, who supplies seed for the sower and bread to eat, will also supply you with all the seed you need and will make it grow and produce a rich harvest from your generosity.

2Co 9:11  He will always make you rich enough to be generous at all times, so that many will thank God for your gifts which they receive from us.

2Co 9:12  For this service you perform not only meets the needs of God’s people, but also produces an outpouring of gratitude to God.

2Co 9:13  And because of the proof which this service of yours brings, many will give glory to God for your loyalty to the gospel of Christ, which you profess, and for your generosity in sharing with them and everyone else.

2Co 9:14  And so with deep affection they will pray for you because of the extraordinary grace God has shown you.

2Co 9:15  Let us thank God for his priceless gift!

In short, fairness is about one’s attitude towards the blessing of God. It is not about the physical possession one has.

Yen asked me why the people of Aaron build a golden calf for the people as the people asked for a God? It really doesn’t make sense for them to ask for a god since they were led out of Egypt by God himself. I guess this makes an interesting question.

Let’s see… for 400 years the people were in Egypt and literally without any interaction with God since the time of Joseph. I believe since the time of Adam, people did not know much about God and His Laws were only given to Moses after they left Egypt. So basically I believe Aaron thought that he was doing the right thing as he forged the golden calf and said that there will be a festival to honor the LORD. Then they had orgy of drinking and sex, which was practiced by pagans around that time. But after reading the scriptures carefully, I found that Aaron knew the law given to the people before the build them the golden calf. Why would he do such a thing really intrigues me. What could be the reasons behind the actions of Aaron? How about the people? The people actually knew about the Laws of the Lord as Moses told them and yet they asked for a god. What was actually going on?

For the people, I guess may be they could not endure the hardship wandering around the desert and wished to go back to the old ways and served the Egyptians. Though they were tormented by the Egyptians, at least they style of living was rather predictable if compared to their life in the desert which they could not even find some meats to eat. That was why the people would like to ask for another god I guess. May be Aaron had to give in to their wishes or else he might as well got killed by the people seeing that the people had no hesitation in having orgy of drinking and sex after they thought Moses was dead.

These might be the sound explanations for the time being, and I sure hope I could have more insights into this in future.  

Gen 2:16  He told him, “You may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden,

Gen 2:17  except the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad. You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do, you will die the same day.”

Lately I have this interesting conversation with a pastor friend about a quotable quote that sounds like this: Many of the roots of human problems are human has a good memory. I suggested that there is no such thing as forgetting what is unpleasant but instead we have to over come those unpleasant memories.

The problem lies in the discussion was that there is this suggestion that we should forget or remember less about memories that we are not able to overcome, as it will be disastrous. In my opinion, in order for the thing to work out, first and foremost, we human must possess the ability to forget about unpleasant memory which I have no confidence at all that human can do that. So basically, instead of talking about forgetting unpleasant memories, I believe that we should actually overcome the negative feelings or impacts brought by the memories and make them as our experience and wisdom of life so that we would not be hold back by those memories.

From the logical point of view, a memory will bring pains to others or oneself if the memories are not properly handled. If we handle the memories properly, there is no need in talking about forgetting those memories. It is disastrous when only we are haunted by the memories but remembering an unpleasant memory does not mean that we are haunted by it. So the idea is to overcome the unpleasant memories and is not to forget about those memories. If we are trying to forget about some memories, it is rather ironic to say that we are actually hold back by the memories when we try to forget about them.

From the biblical point of view, if we are able to selectively forget about certain memories, then I guess we will say our prayer like this: Lord, please help me to forget about this incident. Though I am not God, but I think that God will prefer that we say our prayer like this: Lord, please help me to deal with this incident. If we can forget about certain incident, I guess we do not need God’s help at all. If we do need God’s help, I do not think that God will make us forget about the unpleasant memories. Instead, God will give us the strength to accept, reconcile, forgive, embrace and learn from those unpleasant memories and become wiser and be a blessing to others that have the same kind of problem. 

Gen 4:7  If you had done the right thing, you would be smiling; but because you have done evil, sin is crouching at your door. It wants to rule you, but you must overcome it.” 

Mat 5:21  “You have heard that people were told in the past, ‘Do not commit murder; anyone who does will be brought to trial.’ Mat 5:22  But now I tell you: if you are angry with your brother you will be brought to trial, if you call your brother ‘You good-for-nothing!’ you will be brought before the Council, and if you call your brother a worthless fool you will be in danger of going to the fire of hell.Mat 5:27  “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ Mat 5:28  But now I tell you: anyone who looks at a woman and wants to possess her is guilty of committing adultery with her in his heart. 

Luk 17:1  Jesus said to his disciples, “Things that make people fall into sin are bound to happen, but how terrible for the one who makes them happen!  

Joh 9:1  As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been born blind. Joh 9:2  His disciples asked him, “Teacher, whose sin caused him to be born blind? Was it his own or his parents’ sin?” Joh 9:3  Jesus answered, “His blindness has nothing to do with his sins or his parents’ sins. He is blind so that God’s power might be seen at work in him.   

Now, this part is still in preliminary state of thoughts thus if it somewhat differs from the your thoughts of Sin, you may leave a comment for me.

We used to say that when we do something wrong that is a Sin but from my point of view, that is the end result of Sin. Sin is actually the result of gaining “the knowledge of what is good and what is bad” where we no more have the absolute freedom in making the right choice based on the absolute standard of God. After Eve and Adam ate the Fruit, everything went chaos and they begun to experience the emotions that they had never experience before. Adam out of fear tried to blame the thing on Eve and push the responsibility back to God. Eve in turn tried to blame the Snake. All these things happened because they know the consequences and blaming and shunning the responsibility were the options to them at that time. “The knowledge” gave us more options no mater how absurd and emotional they are than what is needed to make a good decision. From there onwards, decision-making would not be as simply as just following orders.

Jesus told us that to get angry with someone and having evil thoughts are considered as Sins. Thus I guess Sin in this case is having the wrong emotions and wrong thoughts even the thoughts are not implemented. Jesus also said that things that make people fall into Sin are bound to happen and it is especially truth as it is apparent as we always say there are many temptations in this world. Temptation is Sin that crouching at the door and we have to fight it by making the right choice based on the teaching of Christ. But we are all corrupted and are not able to make the right decision most of the time. That is why we need the Holy Spirit to live in our heart to free us from the bondage of “the knowledge” and have a new knowledge to base our decisions on.

Lastly, I guess we might have the concept that Sin is actually inherited from Adam and Eve, but as the way Jesus put it in John 9:1 to 9:3, I believe that Sin is not inherited biologically or in other direct manner to the descendants. When we talk about the sinful nature, it is actually meant that we are not consistently making good decisions after we are born into this world because we acquire “the knowledge” as we grow up under the influence of our parents, family and society.

Gen 2:17  except the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad. You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do, you will die the same day.”Gen 3:1  Now the snake was the most cunning animal that the LORD God had made. The snake asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?” Gen 3:2  “We may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden,” the woman answered, Gen 3:3  “except the tree in the middle of it. God told us not to eat the fruit of that tree or even touch it; if we do, we will die.” Gen 3:4  The snake replied, “That’s not true; you will not die. Gen 3:5  God said that because he knows that when you eat it, you will be like God and know what is good and what is bad.” Gen 3:6  The woman saw how beautiful the tree was and how good its fruit would be to eat, and she thought how wonderful it would be to become wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, and he also ate it. Gen 3:7  As soon as they had eaten it, they were given understanding and realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and covered themselves. 

Some people say that Sin is actually making the wrong decisions and I believe that might be the essence of what sin is. Thus it is a clear logical way to say that God didn’t create something called Sin and Sin was originated from God’s creation and not from God.

Then the next thing to ask is when did Sin come into the world. Some say after Adam ate the fruit, Sin came into the world. In my opinion, Sin first appeared when Eve was given the option that she would not die of eating the fruit. With that in mind, the scope of her choices over what to eat and not to eat has widen and after some consideration which is actually the process of making choice that she thought that how wonderful it would be to become wise. Then come Adam as he saw that Eve was still alive after eating the fruit, a new possibility opened up to him. By then Adam still had the option whether to eat or not to eat, but I guess a normal man would think that it is no way that I am going to let a woman become more wiser than me and hence he ate the fruit as well.

This might not be what was happening back then, but I guess when new option is opened up with choices available and coupled with our decision making process that based on something not absolute like our ego, pride and as well as pleasure then there is when Sin begins to appear. When God’s instruction which is “not to eat the fruit or else you will die the same day” was still absolute, both Adam and Eve obey without much problem as they didn’t have other options.

That is why there are so many problems in this sinful world nowadays when people think that there are no more absolute principles in living one’s life. Even if we know that there are still absolute principles in living our lives, but we are also facing a lot of difficulties in choosing the correct lifestyle because we have so many options that are available to us where we have to consider the pride, ego, pleasure, status and so on.

Then is it okay to say that Adam and Eve will never sin if the snake didn’t appear to them? This is another question that has been answered where the snake did appear. You may say, come on, what kind of answer was that. Let’s see… why God put a tree that did nothing but a pathway to a sinful live in Eden at the first place? Logically, that means that Both Adam and Eve were able to sin, or else it would be meaningless to have the tree there. To end this in a very swift way, in short, God outsmarted Devil.

Gen 2:17  except the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad. You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do, you will die the same day.”

Gen 2:25  The man and the woman were both naked, but they were not embarrassed.

Gen 3:3  “except the tree in the middle of it. God told us not to eat the fruit of that tree or even touch it; if we do, we will die.”

Gen 3:5  God said that because he knows that when you eat it, you will be like God and know what is good and what is bad.”

Gen 3:6  The woman saw how beautiful the tree was and how good its fruit would be to eat, and she thought how wonderful it would be to become wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, and he also ate it.

Gen 3:22  Then the LORD God said, “Now these human beings have become like one of us and have knowledge of what is good and what is bad. They must not be allowed to take fruit from the tree that gives life, eat it, and live forever.” 

The usual theory about the first stage of human freewill was neutral which means that human beings were able to choose to do what is right and wrong at equal probability. After Adam and Eve ate the fruit, the freewill was corrupted by sin, which is a “substance” that was brought into the world through Adam because of his disobedience. A corrupted freewill is what mentioned by Calvin as total deprivation where human beings are at a state of corruption that always deny every single possible good deed that stem from human conscience.  Sin on the other hand was pictured by Rev Stephen Tong as “nothing” just like when a corner of a paper is missing from the perfect paper. It is a state of shortcoming with respect to the perfect state of freewill, which was first given to Adam.

Come back to when Adam and Eve were in Eden; were they totally not able to discern what was wrong and what was right? I guess not, because at least they did know that eating the fruit was something wrong. Then, what does the Bible mean when it stated that “the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad” and look at the way the trinity God talk to themselves “Now these human beings have become like one of us and have knowledge of what is good and what is bad”, does it imply that Adam and Eve were really ignorant about what is good and what is bad? Or the Bible just simply didn’t put the thing in right order?

Well… I guess the freedom theory that I have explored months ago may be applied to reconcile the records or else I will not be able to rest in peace… I meant my mind :^)

So, according to my thoughts on freedom, the absolute freedom is a state of mind where you do not need to choose at all when comes to making decisions. I guess Adam and Eve were at that kind of state and the knowledge of what is good or bad was not necessary as they will automatically do what was necessary. When you need to make decision, it implies that you need some extent of knowledge about the thing and all the possible outcomes. Whatever decision you are going to make, you have to embrace yourself for what to come after that. In another word, “the knowledge of what is good and what is bad” means the decision-making process starting from choices, evaluations, options, decisions, actions and consequences. 

To put it in a more practical way, you pull back your hand when you accidentally touch something that is hot. If that is not convincing, then how about some husbands saving their wives from drowning in the water. I guess the husband would not be standing besides the water and takes his sweet time to consider whether to save his wife right? I know nowadays that does happen, but for argument sake, we believe that the husband will not hesitate to save his wife and no decision is actually needed to be made as he will automatically go and save his wife in whatever mean. This impression of saving someone in the water was engraved on my mind as when I was a preschooler, I almost drown in my grandfather’s fishpond and when my mother learned about that, she jumped into the pond and grasped me ignoring the fact that she did not know how to swim. Well, thank God, we both got saved by other family members instead or else who would be sitting here and write you all this :^) so, what I am trying to say is that there are times where we do not need to make any decision in terms of considering it. And I believe that was the kind of state where Adam was in when he was tending to the Garden of Eden.

Okay, going a step forward, by eating the fruit, Adam and Eve gained the knowledge of good and bad. It means that they were then able to experience the consequences of doing something bad that they were never exposed to. Since they had disobeyed God, they faced other options that they would not have to face. They also obtained the option whether to cover themselves and they decided to cover themselves. In another word, they had lost their absolute freewill or freedom and they were bond by whatever decision that they had made. I guess that was why God said that they were like Him as they gain “the knowledge of what is good and what is bad” because God is literally bond by the history of universe. He is not able to do whatever that is against His divine characteristic and basically He is accountable to His creation after God made the “decision” to create for Himself human beings that worship Him and share His abundances. God create human beings, He has to have “the knowledge of what is good and what is bad” in order for Him to lay out the master plan so that we will be with Him through Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit.

So, I guess the Bible is indeed put the matter of “the knowledge of what is good and what is bad” in proper order. Then how about the sin and other questions? I guess that will be enough for now :^) headache already.

(Rom 5:12  Sin came into the world through one man, and his sin brought death with it. As a result, death has spread to the whole human race because everyone has sinned. Rom 5:13  There was sin in the world before the Law was given; but where there is no law, no account is kept of sins.

Rom 5:14  But from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, death ruled over all human beings, even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam did when he disobeyed God’s command. Adam was a figure of the one who was to come.)

So… it sounds rather unfair for people after Adam because Adam was the one who sinned against God and because of that we have to submit ourselves to death. There are few questions that interest me. Why Adam must die just because of eating the fruit? Why the sin of disobedience came with the price of death and not other punishments? Why the tree was there in the first place? How to justify because of Adam, everyone has sinned? Well… i guess it will take up some time before i can come back here and write something on those questions.

(Rom 4:4  A person who works is paid wages, but they are not regarded as a gift; they are something that has been earned.

Rom 4:5  But those who depend on faith, not on deeds, and who believe in the God who declares the guilty to be innocent, it is this faith that God takes into account in order to put them right with himself.)

We will not know how many Jews were saved under Mosaic Laws, but I believe If God were to take into account every single deed that we have done during our lifetime, I guess the number would be zero. Sometimes we might think that we have sinned as a result that we do something that is wrong, but for God, we sin as well if we do not do something that is right. As a matter of fact, there is basically no way to live up to God’s standards. The only salvation for us is to repent and accept Christ as our savior so that our sin can be redeemed by His death on the cross and be reborn again in the Holy Spirit.

(Rom 3:19  Now we know that everything in the Law applies to those who live under the Law, in order to stop all human excuses and bring the whole world under God’s judgment.) 

The Law is not needed if freewill is not given to man. Thus, freewill is accountable to its choice whether to obey the Law and is totally under the judgment of God. With the human history that we have witnessed as stated in the Old Testament, it proves once and for all that human is not being able to reach the righteousness required by God’s standards. In this case, Jews were chosen as the test subjects and we used to call them the chosen people of God. Why God didn’t choose Chinese as the chosen people? Who knows Chinese was able to meet the standards of God. Well… I guess the history is no need to repeat itself if you ask me.  

(Rom 3:25  God offered him, so that by his blood he should become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in him. God did this in order to demonstrate that he is righteous. In the past he was patient and overlooked people’s sins; but in the present time he deals with their sins, in order to demonstrate his righteousness. In this way God shows that he himself is righteous and that he puts right everyone who believes in Jesus.) 

Here talks about the righteousness and mercy of God. Jesus’ blood is the center of everything. Human history will be doomed if the wrath of God is not calmed by atonement sacrifice of Jesus Christ Himself. Sin has to be cleaned by blood as demanded by the Law and Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice to meet the price demanded by the Law. So God is just and merciful at the same time as the Bible put it.