Pastor Torch

3 yrs

Lesson 1
The Fall
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Adam and Eve were living in the garden of Eden. They were given one simple rule.
Genesis 2:16-17 NKJV
[16] And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; [17] but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
God gave this rule to Adam before He created Eve... and scripture is silent about how Eve was told. But we see in chapter 3 that the serpent questions her about this and in here answer, she has added the phrase, "neither shall you touch it". This bit was added somehow.
Maybe it's just me, but I can just picture the serpent standing there, reach up and pick off one of those fruits. He began to roll it around and play with it as a magician or maybe a juggler might play with it, rolling it along his arm/leg and over the back of his hand/paw. (He still had legs at this point in time). Then he says to Eve..

Genesis 3:4-5 NKJV
[4] Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. [5] For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
So the story goes. She ate, gave some to Adam and he ate too. And then they died... or did they? What then, did God lie about this. Of course not. Adam lived on for some 900 years, physically. So in what way did they both die that day?
The clues we are given are these, that they had been naked but until now had not been ashamed. Now suddenly they realized they were naked and tried to cover it up with fig leaves. Some how that wasn't even enough, so they hid themselves from God.
What died? For answer to this question, we are going to have to follow the clues scattered throughout the Bible.
Lesson 2 will start us on that journey.
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Pastor Torch
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3 yrs

Foreword
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I have grown up in the church. And I have sat under a variety of doctrinal teachings. I'm all too familiar with Biblical debates. The lessons you learn and the sermons you hear can and do differ from one church to the next, each denomination seems to focus intently on some of the Bible's truths but ignore others. As I have grown older, I find that everyone has some insight or revelation that is good, but may be weak or out of touch in other areas. We all need to keep learning. No, not even I have it all down pat.
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So when you read commentaries on the scripture, read them like you eat fried chicken. Consume the meat and spit out the bones. Even these studies may be read that way. I think I have it all put together, but I could learn something new just a few days latter that would change my understanding of these things. Fried Chicken. Remember that.
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That said, I want to dive into the huge debate, what does it take to be saved? Two groups that debate back and forth are the Lordship group and the Once Saved Always Saved group. Each side can clearly show where the other side is off base. I figure, if everybody is wrong then neither one is right. There must be a third option or a different way of looking at the truth both sides adhere too that brings everything in agreement.
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But before I can dive into that, I need to review some fundamental issues in Genesis. Remember, I said everything starts there?
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So look for that in Lesson 1
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Pastor Torch

3 yrs

Are you trying to read your Bible and find it is hard to understand?
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No worries!
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There are some basics that will help. The first thing you need to know is that the Bible is Gods Word, Gods story, and a systematic reveal of who HE is one layer at a time. If you grasp some concept in the New Testament and fail to see it used in the old, it is because the people in the Old Testament had not been given that concept yet. God can not hold them to a standard that HE hasn't given them yet. That would be like a cop writing out tickets for laws that haven't been written yet.
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So, with this nugget of truth in mind, it is easy to see how our own path to understanding the things of God will route us through the Old Testament because it forms a foundation and a framework that we need to build upon to have the right understanding of the deeper things found in the New Testament.
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That said, Genesis is the fundamental foundation for every doctrine of the faith. It all starts here. Every key concept has its beginning right there in Genesis. And why not? The best way to understand our place in this world, is to look at how it all got started.
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Yes. The book of Genesis starts us off with the cosmic answers to How it all started. But to be fair, we won't get any clues as to Why God did this Earth thing until we have ventured much further in.
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One final note for this basic intro.. Everything about God can be likened to a wheel within a wheel. One point leads to another, leads to a third, fourth.. and so on until it all comes back around to your first point. Not unlike a wheel spinning around. Everything in scripture becomes gloriously connected to everything else. If you haven't already, at some point you will meet a person who is discovering these links for the first time. Their minds are bouncing from point to point like the little silver ball in a pen ball game. I hope that reference isn't too dated. While we may have difficulty understanding what they are talking about, rejoice with them because it is all coming together. Gods word makes perfect sense!
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Keep reading!

4 yrs

Please pray.

For America. For Donald J. Trump. For peace.

Consider everything this nation has gone thru in recent years.
9/11 did not bring us down. Covid has not brought us down. If our enemies are going to take this nation down, they will have to incite civil war.
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Civil war would bring us down because we would destroy ourselves.
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What better to divide a nation than this election cycle? Voter fraud? The extreme polar divide between the Democrats and Republicans...
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But if we go to blood and bullets, China wins. Russia wins. The Muslims win. The anarchist win. George Soros wins. They will pick our remains apart like vultures pick over a carcass.
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So pray for a peaceful resolution.