BEAST or BEST
Part 2

How Do you Want to Be Remembered?

Society bears the unmistakable marks of a beast which has been around since man was created.  The Bible identifies the beast with three sixes, 666 (Revelation 13:18).  It calls the string of sixes the mark of the beast.  Those achieving the mark of 666 have fallen short of the best.

What mark is the best?  I am glad you asked.

Well, the very best is God’s mark of perfect holiness.  God is Holy and His holiness demands the best; that best is 777, the number representing God, The Deity.

The mark of the beast, 666 is not just one short of God's number 777, it is 111 short of God's number (guess what God's number in this post is, yep, 111).  You will learn of the significance of this difference later in this post.

In Beast or Best Part 1, we found that the Beast was marked 666 because of his sin.  Moreover, being cast out of Heaven (Isaiah 14:15) forever for his sin, he went on to attempt to contaminate everything God created, starting with Adam and Eve, presented in Genesis as the first human beings originally created in God's image.

Let's take stock at many of the other nicknames the Beast has earned:

We learned that in successfully leading both Adam and Eve to sin, they were bannished from the Garden of Eden forever.  While this may sound harsh to us, realize that God's Holiness is pure.  In its impurity, SIN will always be less than His Holiness.  God's Holy standards are the absolute highest possible.

Even just one sin will always be repugnantly incompatible to God's Holiness.  To God, sinning once will lead to more sinning in the future.

But, you know, God has mercy on His creation.  He did not physically kill Adam and Eve for their sin, God banished them from associating with Him in Heaven.  The whole Bible presents the possibility of restoring a relationship with God with a sincere blood sacrifice.

God has given all of mankind multiple chances to not sin.  Adam and Eve sinned and were banished from Eden, their offspring had another chance until about 1960 years later, when the population had grown to as much as 9 billion people, God purged the world of sin with a Great Flood saving only Noah and seven relatives so they could try again.  Mankind is in the process of its last do over.

How much time is God giving mankind this last time?  Right now the world's population has grown to about 7.75 billion people.  Whenever it is, the Bible says the end of the time God will give mankind to restore their relationship with God will be The End of Times.

The Hebrew and Greek writers tried to capture that notion in the word SIN when they wrote the Bible.  For example, the Old Testament uses the Hebrew word chata'  in the reflex causative case and the New Testament Greek uses the word hamartano.  They both mean "missing the mark."  The reflex causative case of those verbs imply continuous actions; the reflexive action occurs over and over again.

Mankind has proven the reflex causative case of the word for sin to be true so far.

Let's see if we can understand the nature of continuous sin in a more simple example.  The first time I learned of the Hebrew and Greek words for sin as "missing the mark" I thought of striking out, as in baseball.  I saw the 666, three sixes, and equated that to three swings and misses rendering a batter out.  But, then I though about the mark implying the overall outcome.

The ultimate in baseball is not to just to hit the ball, it is to win the game.  The game that immediately came to my mind that I relate to sin ("sinning" in Greek means - amartano, "missing the mark" ) was darts.  I can throw one dart and win the game because the definition of a win is to hit the absolute center of the dartboard.  In darts, that is achieving a 7.  There are six concentric rings and the very center point is the 7 of the dartboard.  The images below present a dartboard used in a a game of darts.

Let's try to relate the difference between 666 and 777 with the game of darts.  In parallel with the Bible, three numbers means three chances to purify our hearts, to go sinless.  Then three sixes, 666 in darts is missing the "center" mark three times.  Hitting the "center twice and missing the "center" mark only once is 776.  See what I mean, miss just one time and it is still less than 777.

Mankind has chosen to take their chances at the dartboard.  They will never score 777 without God's mercy and help (They need God:  111).

Now, there is scarcely room in the very center for more than one dart.  So God being God did the only thing that God can do.  He became three darts at once as The Father (God), The Son (Jesus), The Holy Spirit (Counselor).  If you believe in The Son (Jesus) and all that He stands for, He has already given His life as a sacrifice for your sin.  The Holy Spirit will help to counsel you in the process of being worthy of restoring a relationship with The Father (God).  All three Figures if the Godhead (The Trinity) represent that one center point (the same spot, the same beliefs, and at the same time) to yield 777.  How can that be?  God can do anything He wants to do.  That is the best possible quality of life that cannot be beat.  All you have to do is believe in Christ!

Note: Some pundits point to the number 888 being representative of a holy number.  That is a numerological process revealed using the sum of the squares, as in 8^2 + 8^2 + 8^2 = 64 + 64 + 64 = 192 = 1^2 + 9^2 + 2^2 = 1 + 81 + 4 = 86 = 8^2 + 6^2 =64 + 36 = 100 = 1^2 + 0 + 0 = 1, the singularity of 1, representing God, refer to the following link for more information on 888.  There is another number that some consider to be "spiritual," though it is as much of a stretch as 888, and that number is 818, which so happens to yield a "1"-the singular representation of God using the same sum of the squared method as that used for the 888 (818 = 64 + 1 + 64 = 129 = 1 + 4 + 81 = 86 = 64 + 36 = 100 = 1).  The numerologists claim 818 mathematically.  Some Bible believers use the numerological and concept of new spiritual beginnings of "new life," by combining Psalms 8:18, 2 Corinthians 5:17 and Revelations 3:14.  Mixing numerology and the recent use of 818 by Jews, who do not generally recognize Scripture beyond the Pentateuch, comes awfully close to explaining why God forbade a mixing of cultures to come up with a new belief system.

Whether 777 represents God or 888 or 818 is not the point of this post.  The point is that God is always better than satan and only one sin is enough to destroy our relationship with God without Jesus.  For that, the 777 just happens to fit well into this post.

This posting is copyright protected by Creative Commons requirement that credit must be given to the creator and allowances are given to only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted.  Any adaptations of and to it must be shared under the same terms.

 

BEAST or BEST

Part 1

HOW WILL YOU BE REMEMBERED ?

Since the beginning of creation They were there with God (Genesis 1:26).

How do I know it was 'They'?

Well, I'm glad you asked.  Right away, in Genesis 1:2b we are told "the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters."  Then notice how that verse in Genesis 1:26 is worded to say ... "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;"  and notice how the Hebrew translators were sharp enough to use capital letters for "Us" and "Our."  Those capital letters were intentional; they were not typo's.

You have to read closely to realize "Us" and "Our" does not include the Beast, but Whoever the "Us" and "Our" are, 'They are important enough for God to say "Us" and "Our."  I'll tell you more about "Them" later in the post.

The Beast existed at that time, and he exists to this day according to Revelations 13:18; his role at the time of creation had more to do with making the earth tremble and shaking kingdoms, according to Isaiah 14:16-17.  God tells us in Isaiah why the Beast was relegated to trembling and shaking things rather than building them up.

Described as a Morning Star that became a fallen angel in God's Word,  Isaiah 14:12-15 tells us about what I call:

"The Five I's:"

"How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations!
    "But you said in your heart,

1. 'I will ascend to heaven;
2. 'I will raise my throne above the stars of God;
3. And 'I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north.
4. 'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
5. 'I will make myself like the Most High.'

"Well isn't that special.  Who could have led you to sin?  Could it perhaps maybe have been ... maybe SATAN!"

"Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, To the recesses of the pit.

That should tell you that the Morning Star's "I's" were bigger than reality.  The "I's" of his heart's desire exposed a way out of proportion ego revealing that he wanted to have even more power than God; he wanted to be the God above God.

That is just not going to happen.  Thinking like that does not and has not worked since mankind was created.  Dana Carvey's, "Church Lady" character is right, when she repudiates such thinking:

So, the Morning Star was thrown out of Heavenly bliss.  His first stop was Eden where he changed in appearance or figuratively from a morning star into a serpent, more crafty that any beast of the field we are told in Genesis 3:1.  The serpent found Eve and her husband Adam naked and innocently unashamed in the Garden of Eden according to Genesis 2:25.

The serpent went to work and gained a couple of additional nicknames, a deciever and a "craftier beast of the field" in Genesis 3:1.  Here is how the beast, now serpent, works:

• He cast doubt in Eve's mind of God's command. Genesis 2:16-17 gives the command and the consequence for disobeying it.

• "The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.'"

• Knowing that God gave Adam the command before Eve was even created, the serpent crafted a plausible, but false command by manipulatively adding and excluding select words that God had used to Adam.  All the serpent asked Eve was ... "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" (Genesis 3:1b)

• Indubidably indeed, Eve answered, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.' " (Genesis 3:2-3)

• Realizing that Eve had an imperfect knowledge of God's command, the serpent pounced like a lion.

• In what had to be a lightning reaction, her imperfect knowledge gave the serpent the ability to use his deception and missdirection tactics.

• The now deceiving and missdirecting serpent was also presented an opportunity to obtain the nickname of "liar" by contradicting God's consequences for disobeying His command. "The serpent said to the woman, 'You surely will not die! ' " (Genesis 3:4)

• The manipulating, lying, deceiving, and misdirecting serpent now was also given the opportunity to denigrate God in Eve's eyes and mind and to accuse God of withholding knowledge of good and evil to purposefully keep her from being like Him, being like God, knowing good and evil.  "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:5)

• Eve was finally completely snagged, hook, line and sinker.  She became as bad as the beastly manipulating, lying, deceiving, misdirecting denigrating serpent when she contaminated her husband by inviting him to do as she had done.  "When [she] saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate." (Genesis 3:6)

WOW.  Becoming a sinner whose actions helped to bannish mankind from the Heavenly Garden of Eden forever sure didn't take long did it?

You might even be thinking that Adam and Eve didn't do something so grave as to warrant condemation forever.  If so, be very, very careful with that thought.  That kind of thinking is what all of mankind has been thinking since then.  Look at what it has yielded.

To this day, all of society tries to explore and figure out ways around the boundaries of God's commands, to skirt God's Laws.  You might think by now that we should all realize that mindset and subsequent actions are not going to do any good.

You see, the difference between God's expectations and mankind's actions is the difference between the Beast, 666, and the Best, 777.

Stay tuned for the next post, which will take stock of the other names for the beast in the Bible and provide another perspective in realizing that God's standards are exacting and unwavering.

This posting is copyright protected by Creative Commons requirement that credit must be given to the creator; allowances are given to only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted.  Any adaptations of and to it must be shared under the same terms.