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FOREFATHERS.
WE ALL HAVE MANY FOREFATHERS BUT:
"Woe to those who are going very deep
in concealing counsel from Jehovah Himself, and whose deeds have occurred in a
dark place, while they say: "Who is seeing us, and who is knowing of us?" The
perversity of you men! Should the potter himself be accounted just like the
clay? For should the thing made say respecting its maker: "He did not make me"?
And does the very thing formed actually say respecting its former: "He showed no
understanding"?" (Isaiah 29:15,16).
We have only One original Father, The Creator of
us all. (Acts 7:32).
THE REWARD
FOR PERVERSITY.
Surely, it must require great effort
for one to repeatedly suppress righteousness with wickedness, especially after
having acquired true knowledge of righteousness. In doing so, such persons have
a love of wickedness. (2 Thess 2:9-12).
God is destroying the tyrants of Lebanon.
(Isaiah 29:17,20). He is also bringing the unchangeable rebellion among
Ethiopians to an end by their deaths. (Jer 15:3,4). Our God uses the bad example
of certain men of the past, like Manasseh, to describe a nation's current degree
of wickedness. (See: 1 Sam 3:11-14. 2 Kings 21:1-6. 1 Kings 16:30-33). So
no matter how much more time were to be granted, the process of spirit
reconciliation to God is not possible for Ethiopians schooled in evil since
childhood. (Jer 13:23-27 NEB). Both they
and their forefathers will each be judged for their own guilt.
Christ Jesus removed all excuses for continuance in rebellious dispositions
inherited from forefathers. (Col 2:13,14. 1 Peter 4:6).
Therefore, one should use knowledge of the
perversity of sinful forefathers to one's advantage, avoiding those things which
God hates. In particular, 'Babylonian'-type errors still being practiced among
nations today, for it is prophesied that those of satan's progeny will be cut
off without a remnant. (Isaiah 14:20-22). As prophesied, they are being
destroyed. (Jer 15:3,4). "Here a little there a little". (Isaiah 28:13).
THE
FOREFATHERS OF JEWS.
While most Jews have the "veil" of
"blunted sensibilities" concerning The Christ, this has meant salvation to
people of the nations. (Rom 11:7,25). And so, in
consideration of the handed-down errors from their forefathers depriving
successive generations of spirit creation, Jehovah will remove their "veil" of
stubborn disobedience and extend to them His mercy. In this way they are,
"beloved for the sake of their
forefathers." (Rom
11:28-32. See Page 14/12/83).
The Christ sprang from obedient forefathers (Rom 9:5), and from him the children
of the "seed" according to a promise (not according to works); solely
dependant upon the One who calls. Christ continued in obedience to our Father's
Will. But it should be noted that "not all descendants of Israel are truly
Israel, nor, because they are Abraham's offspring, are they all His true
children" (children of God). (Rom 9:6-9 NEB).
For, "'Though the Israelites be countless as the sands of the sea, only a
remnant shall be saved; for the Lord's sentence on the land will be
summary and final'". (Rom 9:27-29 NEB).
PERVERSE:
Obstinate in the wrong; stubborn; intractable; petulant.
FOREFATHER: A progenitor; an
ancestor.
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