True Children of God

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Only those who are believers and are living by God’s spirit are children of God and are joint heirs of the kingdom along with Jesus. It is they who will inherit the blessings that God promises and they who will share in Jesus’ glory, but they will also share in his persecution and suffering (John 1:10-13, 1 John 3:9-10, Rom 8:7-17).

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Did God Almost Break His Promise

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Some people object to God’s anger at the Israelites in Exodus 32 and Numbers 14 because he threatened to kill them off and start over, which would violate his promise to Jacob that all of his children would inherit the promised land of Canaan. After all, they are from Abraham’s seed (1 Chr 16:14-18, Gen 35:12, Gen 48:21-22, Gen 50:22-26), thus making God a covenant breaker and untrustworthy.

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God’s Justice vs Mercy

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According to Ezekiel 18:23-32, God doesn’t enjoy punishing the wicked but has to for the sake of justice for their victims; however, God will show mercy to those who repent. Similar ideas can be found in Isaiah 57:15-21, Jeremiah 18:1-10, Ezekiel 33:10-12, 33:17-20, Psalms 7:1-17, and Psalms 32:1-11. The Bible says we humans are born with sin nature that we inherited from Adam the first human (Rom 5:12-17), so if God destroys all evil, then that would include all people (Isa 57:16) because no one is “good” according to God’s definition of good. Jesus even says this in Matt 19:17, Mark 10:18, and Luke 18:19. One problem is that extremists keep redefining God through one extreme or another. One side looks at the Flood story, or the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and says God is a destructive, bloodthirsty maniac. The other side looks at God’s love and mercy through Jesus in the New Testament and thinks sin does not matter, so we are all free to live as degenerate heathens because of his mercy. Even though sin was such a big deal, Christ had to die for us because sin requires death.

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The Hosts of Heaven

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To the ancient world, the sun, moon, and stars were seen as living creatures, not just balls of gas or rocks in space. That is why pagan cultures worshipped them, but to the Israelites, they were just members of the host of heaven who served God. Who are the Hosts of Heaven? According to the Bible, there are Angels, Cherubs, Seraphs, and Sons of God in the Heavens. There are various beings in heaven, and they differ in appearance and roles. To the Bible believers, the spiritual beings in heaven are not gods, but servants of the Most High God. However, to the pagan nations, they were seen as part of a pantheon of gods. That’s how other ancient tribes ended up worshipping them as deities and praying to them, which the Bible frowns upon, even in the New Covenant (Colossians 2:18, Hebrews 1:14). 

Elohim:
Elohim (אלוהים) is the plural version of Eloah (אלוה), which means god in the generic sense. In scriptures that say “you shall have no other ‘gods’ before me”, the word “gods” is translated from the Hebrew Elohim. For example, Deut 10:17 says For Adonai (the Lord) your God is God of gods and Lord of lords. ‘God of gods’ is translated from Elohim of Elohim. However, Elohim has another linguistic function that allows it to function as a singular. Usually, “im” at the end of a word in Hebrew makes the word plural, like “s” at the end of a word in English. However, some words can function as concretized abstract plurals. Meaning they take the plural form but are functionally singular. The Hebrew word for water, “Mayim” (מַיִם) functions the same way. Mayim has “im” on the end, but it often refers to a singular body of water. Concretization can be both singular and plural. In English, we have concretized singular words like “sheep”. When there are multiple of them, we still use the word “sheep” instead of “sheeps” because of this system. 

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