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NASB | Genesis 2:9 Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 2:9 And [in that garden] the LORD God caused to grow from the ground every tree that is desirable and pleasing to the sight and good (suitable, pleasant) for food; the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the [experiential] knowledge (recognition) of [the difference between] good and evil. [Rev 2:7; 22:14, 19] |
Subject: The fruit and leaves of the tree of life |
Bible Note: Hi CDBJ The Gospel message is the whole of the Old and New Testaments, beginning at Genesis 3.15, (although the creation was also good news) as fulfilled in Jesus Christ. It is that the Kingly Rule of God has come and all who believe in Jesus may enter it and receive all the benefits that He has bought for them. I like your quotation. Nothing about a Tribulation period and a Millennium there. Good sound Christian doctrine. Yes I am very satisfied with it. And yet it does not mention the heavenly kingdom so it does not cover the whole of the good news or of the doctrine of salvation. After all that is not what Paul is trying to do, and I would not want to pick on him and pull him up because he does not include everything in one statement. Oh how I wish it was true that the majority of believers were relying on Bible doctrine and God's promises. What a saintly church you must belong to. The problem is (as any godly American minister will tell you) that far too many are depending on promises made in books which put on a pretence of being Scriptural and then make outlandish claims. Of course it is not possible to state in a few sentences what all Americans believe. To pretend to be able to do so would be absurd. Many are a-millennialists. Some are no doubt post-millennialist, and then we have pre-tribulational, mid-tribulational and post tribulational pre millennialists. But there is no doubt that the American church and the American public is bombarded with eschatological teaching much of which is of an extreme kind (in a way that is not true of the rest of the world), and that large numbers of American Christians spend too much time on thinking about eschatology at the cost of sound doctrine (and I have this on the word of godly American preachers). Equally of course there are good numbers who do not. In the end American belief is as diverse as that anywhere else. It is just that some emphases are different in different parts of the world, and one of the emphases of the American church is on eschatology, something which cannot honestly be denied. Yes like the writer to the Hebrews in chapter 11 I am 'proud' of being in a long line of saints, in which I have been placed as a result of the grace of God,and as the Scriptures tell me to do I look at them and rejoice in what they accomplished and then in the greater illumination God gave in the New Testament which I can enjoy, so that I can then look off to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of my faith. Do you not? May I suggest that you read Hebrews 11-12. May I also suggest that it is neither gracious nor helpful simply to take statements out of context and make them mean what every sensible person knows that they do not mean? We are supposed to be trying to understand each other, not getting at each other. All I have done is explain my position to people who have been asking about it, having first of all tried to dissuade them from asking. Genuine cordial best wishes Jonp. |