The Gap Theory

Originally posted by RJHinds
I still believe your problem is that you are trying to learn from a cult leader just like the JWs.

Originally posted by sonship
When I read and was convinced of the pre-Adamic history of Satan by reading Pember's book, I did know even know the name of Witness Lee.

I guess you should make up your mind which debate you want to have here.

George Hawkins Pember (1837–1910), known as G. H. Pember, was an English theologian and author who was affiliated with the Plymouth Brethren.

His book Earth's Earliest Ages, which went through several editions, had two principal objectives. Pember wrote in the preface to the first edition: "To remove some of the Geological and other difficulties usually associated with the commencing chapters of Genesis" and "to show the characteristic features of the Days of Noah were reappearing in Christendom, and therefore, that the Days of the Son of Man could not be far distant."

In this book Pember attempted to reconcile the Genesis account of the world's creation with the emerging fossil evidence in geological science about the age of the earth. Pember argued a position known as "The Gap Theory", and which had been previously proposed by the Scottish theologian Thomas Chalmers (1780–1847).

Originally posted by sonship
How do we know that the precious stones of the New Jerusalem signify the transformed believers.

Well, [b]Peter was the leading disciple. And Jesus changed his name from Simon to "a stone" - Peter.

Peter, the representative leading disciple of the 12 told us that we are similarly living stones built up into a house of God -

"You yourselv ...[text shortened]... JHinds would in his ignorance accuse me of following a cult leader.

Thanks for the honor RJ.

YouTube

Originally posted by RJHinds
I don't believe that you should feel any honor in being deceived by a cult leader. I hope that you will come to your senses and reconsider what I have said, as being a warning, and not as an honor.

Garden of Eden (Kent Hovind)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfgPHs9e3Cc

This post is for the thread. It is not to convince RJHinds the thread's starter.

Gen. 1:1-2, 26-28; 2:7-9 expose the ongoing battle between God and Satan.


Here is an outline of key events -

In the preadamic age there is God's creation of the heavens and the earth—Gen. 1:1; Job 38:4-6. . And there is God's orderly creation stirred up the angels to sing and shout for joy—Job 38:7.

But the Satanic confusion and contrariness to God's will appears
Satan rebelled against God, and one third of the angels joined him in his rebellion—Isa. 14:12-15; Ezek. 28:13-18; Rev. 12:4.

The universe became a chaos under God's judgment: the heavens became dark, and the earth became waste and void—Job 9:5-7; I believe may allude to this. But for certain Gen. 1:2a does.

Then in the six days God begins the restoral with some new further creation in the universe.

God restored the heavens, particularly in its lights, and the earth, specifically in its land—Gen. 1:2b-19. God created man to express Him in His image and to represent Him in His dominion—Gen. 1:26-28.

This was a NEW life in the universe - MAN. Man was on His heart from eternity past. Man was not a casual afterthought. God is transcendent over all time. And He planned to have humans as His sons even before the creation of the universe !

"Even as He chose us in Him [Christ] BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD to be holy and without blemish before Him in love." (Eph. 1:4)

Did the Daystar KNOW about this plan? I don't know.
Did Lucifier try to run ahead of God and imitate this plan? I don't know. Maybe he knew more than we think.

But this creature man was known to God in His heart and God predestinated men to sonship through Jesus Christ -

"Predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will." (Eph. 1:5)

Back Genesis 2 we see that God put man in front of the tree of life (a figure of Christ as the embodiment of the divine life), indicating that man should take God in Christ as life for the carrying out of the divine economy—Gen. 2:8-17.

The man in the image of God was at first neutral and innocent. But he needed to be FILLED with the life of God. And that is the significance of "the tree of life" . This is something no angel ever had. This is something Lucifer the highest created being never had. That is the honor to be united to God by RECEIVING God INTO his being.

God presented Himself to man in the form of "the tree of life" to signify God is FOOD to be taken in, assimilated, dispensed into one's being to constitute one with the life of God.

God remains the Source and the Head. But God can dispense Himself into man as one to get into his fabric and mingle with man. This was a completely new economy in the creation of God.

Satan moved to preemptively halt this. The satanic and confusion was at work again. Satan as the serpent tempted man to take the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—Gen. 3:1-5. Man was deceived and became fallen—Gen. 3:6-7.

Believe in a gap of millions of years of sin and death at your own peril. 😏

Originally posted by RJHinds
Believe in a gap of millions of years of sin and death at your own peril. 😏

Originally posted by sonship
Just for curiosity's sake - What's the "peril" ?

Will I devolve into an ape ?
Will I lose a lifetime subscription to Dinosaur Theme Park magazines or something?

I won't be redeemed?
I won't be built up in the Body of Christ?

What's the "PERIL" ?
What's the awful danger awaiting us who take Lucifer's fall as occurring in a pre-Adamic t ...[text shortened]... nly "peril" I see is I have to see that smug self satisfied smirk on your moniker's face. Yawn.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
...
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

Originally posted by RJHinds
The cult leader Witness Lee distorted the words of scripture to teach others to believe in untruth. Don't you pass it on to others compounding the sin.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
...
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he w ...[text shortened]... ir ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

(2 Timothy 4:3-4 NKJV)[/b]

Originally posted by sonship
Ridiculous.

False alarms. You think you get sounder teaching from Dr. Dinosaur ?
That was pitiful.

Originally posted by RJHinds
I receive my teachings from study of the scripture and inspiration by the Holy Spirit. However, Kent Hovind gives sounder teachings than the cult leader Witness Lee in my humble opinion. 😏

Just look at that name "Hovind" and remove the "ov" and add "s" and you have Hinds. Ha, ha. 😀

(1) THE BASIS OF CONSECRATION

When anything of consequence is undertaken by God or man, the basis of such an undertaking needs to be clear. Now this matter of consecration is one of supreme importance; therefore, it must rest on a solid foundation. If God requires that we surrender ourselves to Him, on what does He base His requirement? He must have ground for requiring our surrender, and we in turn must have ground for surrendering ourselves to Him. The Bible shows that the question of consecration is settled on the ground of purchase. “Ye are not your own,” says the Word in one place, “For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:20). And elsewhere it says: “Whether we live, we live to the Lord, or if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom. 14:8). The Bible speaks also of our being God’s “bondslaves.” A bondslave is one over whom his master has full rights because of his having bought him. The term “bondslave” does not sound particularly pleasant, but we who have experienced the grace of the Lord know the sweetness of being His bondslaves.

The Lord has purchased us with a great price so that now no one of us has a right to himself. The authority over our lives was given into His hands by right of purchase. It is on this basis that He claims our surrender. At great cost, even at the cost of the precious blood of His Son, God has bought us for Himself. By virtue of His having bought us, the authority over our lives is neither the world’s nor our own; it is His. He has, therefore, clear ground to require that we hand ourselves over to Him.

And from our side, since we were bought by Him, if we do not hand ourselves over to Him, we are acting like runaway slaves. We are like Onesimus, whom Paul sent back to his master Philemon. Many Christians, right up to the present day, are runaway slaves. The Lord has established His rights over them by redemption, yet they refuse to recognize His legal claims. He has paid the price, but they will not let Him take possession of what is His own. This amounts to an offense against the law of the universe. We must settle this matter of God’s legal claim upon us by handing ourselves over to Him.

The sound basis of consecration is a legal one. Our consecration is not based on the constraints of love, as many Christians think. They offer themselves to or withhold themselves from the Lord according as they sense His love or fail to sense it. But in the sight of God, our consecration is not an optional matter; its legal basis is established. You have been bought as His bondslave, and whether you like it or not, you belong to Him. The right to your life is not yours, but His, for He has acquired it by purchase.

(2) THE MOTIVE POWER
OF CONSECRATION

We have just said that love is not the basis of consecration. But love is its motive power. There are slaves who realize that the authority over their lives is in the hand of their masters, and they clench their teeth in bitterness of soul to serve them. They have no love for those who own them. But you may remember that we are told in Exodus 21 of a slave who at the end of six years’ service could have become a free man, but he declared, “I love my master...I will not go out free” (v. 5). Thereupon his master led him to the doorpost and bored his ear with an awl. By submitting to this, the slave said in effect, “For love of my master I want to be his slave forever.” He could have entered into liberty, but for love’s sake he repudiated his freedom. This is true consecration.

Consecration has a basis; consecration has also a motive power. The basis is God’s redemption; the motive power is God’s love. There is a verse which says, “I beg you...through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well-pleasing to God” (Rom. 12:1). And another which says, “The love of Christ constrains us” (2 Cor. 5:14a). But why should we yield to the constraint of love? Because “One died on behalf of all; therefore all died; and He died on behalf of all, that those who live may no longer live to themselves, but to Him who died for them and has been raised” (2 Cor. 5:14b-15). Everyone who has had a true experience of consecration has at least once, but possibly many times, known the touch of the love of God. Without that touch of His love upon us, consecration is a bitter thing; in fact, it is hardly a possibility. The security of our consecration depends upon its basis; but the vitality and sweetness of our consecration depends on its motive power, i.e., the love of God. Consecration is the effect of the Lord’s touch upon a life. You do not need to plead with a person who has known the Lord’s love to surrender to Him. Surrender is spontaneous.

Some brothers and sisters, from their conversion right up to the present day, have never really known the love of God. So the question of their consecration has never been settled. Throughout the two thousand years of church history, all those in and through whom He has specially wrought are those who, at least once in their lifetime, have felt the impact of His love. When His love touched them, they had no alternative but to fall before Him and offer their all to Him. Their reaction was similar to that expressed in the hymn:

“When I survey the wondrous Cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.”

When we really meet the love of God, we feel that our all must be offered up to Him; yet at the same time we feel that our richest offering is as refuse in the light of His love. Let but the love of God touch us and consecration will become spontaneous.

Originally posted by sonship
I am submitting two portions of a book by Witness Lee entitled [b]Consecration .

One section involves "The Basis of Consecration".
The other section involves "The Motive Power of Consecreation"

After reading them from this "cult leader" I would like you to please paste in a portion of the talks of Kent Hovind to compare h ...[text shortened]... ther Kent Hovind (alias Dr. Dino) dealt similarly with this subject matter.

Thanks.[/b]

Originally posted by RJHinds

I have already pointed out to you the unorthodox teachings of Mr. Lee and see no reason to rehash that argument.

Originally posted by sonship

I have already pointed out to you the unorthodox teachings of Mr. Lee and see no reason to rehash that argument.

No you didn't.
And yes, there is no need to rehash trash.

Originally posted by RJHinds
Apparently you have gotten amnesia again, like the JWs. 😏