When I just started reading the bible I wondered what was meant by ‘evil ways.’ Because the whole nation was addressed and I just could not imagine how a whole nation could be considered evil. When we read on however we’re told that refusing to follow God’s rules is considered evil. His main rules are pretty simple and easy to understand; love each other, do not lie, kill, steal, covet and so on. And yes we are ‘commanded’ to love each other. Not only those nice people that are easy to love but also complete strangers, people we don’t know or understand and those who hate us. All I can say is that I’m working on it.
The fourteenth time the word’s ‘live for ever’ are mentioned in the bible is in the book of the prophet Zechariah where he writes, ‘Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?’ Below are the scripture verses relating to this text as quoted from Zechariah 1.
Your fathers, where are they?
In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, The Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers. Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the Lord.
But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us.
GOD’s words and laws live for ever!
The context of this writing highlights that people come and go but GOD’s words and laws live for ever. We can decide to follow Him or not and expect to be dealt with accordingly.
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ABOUT THE CONTENT – All content on this website is copyrighted and you can read more about this here. Please also read the disclaimer about my authority and qualifications.
ABOUT THIS BLOG – We’re researching the truth of living forever according to GOD’s Holy Word; Sola Scripture. Popular opinion tells us that everyone who ‘believes’ and has ‘faith’ will go to heaven. Is this true? I decided to ask the prophets about the truth of it all.
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How do we address the God of Israel, the God of our bible?
Most people I know, refer to our heavenly Father as GOD or The LORD. Many I know, including myself, address Him as ‘Father’ and refer to him as ‘our Creator.’
I know that people of Jewish ancestry don’t pronounce the name of our LORD but tend to refer to him as Adonai and write His name as G-d. I once read an explanation for this on a Jewish website which mentioned that God’s name is too holy for us to take in our mouth. In addition, if we don’t take His name in our mouth we cannot transgress the 3rd Commandment which tells us not to take the LORD’s name in vain.
The King James translators of the bible refer to our Father as ‘God’ and ‘The Lord’ and ‘the Lord our God,’ as do most other bible translations.
Most people I know don’t call their parents by their first name either but use the generic ‘mum’ and ‘dad’ out of respect. For this reason I never took issue with the fact that hardly anyone refers to our heavenly Father by His name.
What has the bible got to say about the name of our Father?
Quite a few references are made in the bible about the name of our Father. We’ll have a look at three of them. The first one is where GOD spoke to Moses out of a fiery bush. The second occasion we’ll mention is at Mount Sinai where GOD introduced himself to his people and the third occasion is where King David refers to our Father as Jah.
In the book of Exodus Moses asked GOD, ‘What should I tell people who ask me what your name is?’ This was an occasion where the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he when he looked, Moses saw that the bush burned with fire, but the bush was not consumed. When Moses turned to look closer as to what was going on, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And God said, take your shoes off because this is holy ground.
And Moses said to God, Behold when I am coming to the children of Israel and say ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you’, and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’, what should I tell them? And God said to Moses, Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh (I am that which I am), and He said, thus shall you say to the children of Israel, ‘Ehyeh has sent me to you’. And God said further to Moses, thus shall you say to the Children of Israel: ‘YHWH the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you, this is my name forever, this is my mention for every generation.
At Mount Sinai
If we look at how the bible translators dealt with what was said at Mount Sinai where our Father introduced himself to his people we notice that there are quite a few variations. Most translators translate as follows, ‘I am the LORD your God,’ others translated, ‘I am Jehovah your GOD’ and one translated as ‘I am Yahweh your God.’
Riding upon the heavens
Further on in the bible in the book of Psalms King David refers to our Father as Jah.
When GOD himself places importance of his name, I sit up and listen.
When we address GOD and refer to him why don’t we call him by his name?
It doesn’t help matters much that some religious groups have kinda ‘hijacked’ the name Jehovah such as for instance the Jehova’s witnesses. By mentioning his name people may think that those who mention Jehovah’s name are associated with certain groups they may not necessary feel like they want to be associated with.
There are people who call God by his name and refer to The LORD as Yahweh or Jehovah. But if we want to call our Father by his name, it would be nice to know the correct name and how to pronounce it. How can we find out what God’s name is and how to pronounce it?
I have good news for you! Biblicar scholar Nehemia Gordon has done a study on just that.
Study on the name of the Most High by biblical scholar
The consonants of the name YHVH appear some 6828 times in the Hebrew text of Scripture, yet is hardly found in any bible; why is this so?
Biblical scholar Nehemia Gordon has done a study on this very subject and his study ‘The Pronunciation of the Name’ dismantles the ‘scholarly consensus’ that the name of God is ‘Yahweh’, and proves it to be ‘Ye HO VaH’ which is pronounced with the emphasis on the last vowel.
Nehemia says that, ‘When it comes to the name it is widely believed that the vowels were systematically replaced with the vowels of the word Adonai (Lord). So modern scholars deliberately ignore the vowels of YHVH which are actually written in the Hebrew text of Scripture and attempt to reconstruct what the “original” vowels were based on all kinds of external arguments and speculations.
As a result, scholars arrive at different conclusions as to how the name was originally pronounced. One of the most popular theories is that the name was pronounced Yahweh and there is a virtual scholarly consensus concerning this name. However, this consensus is not based on decisive proof. The Anchor Bible Dictionary explains: ‘The pronunciation of yhwh as Yahweh is a scholarly guess.’
If you want to know more about Nehemia’s study on this and other subjects you can visit him by clicking on any of the links provided. Thank you Nehemia for such an excellent study.
ABOUT THE CONTENT – All content on this website is copyrighted and you can read more about this here. Please also read the disclaimer about my authority and qualifications.
ABOUT THIS BLOG – We’re researching the truth of living forever according to GOD’s Holy Word; Sola Scripture. Popular opinion tells us that everyone who ‘believes’ and has ‘faith’ will go to heaven. Is this true? I decided to ask the prophets about the truth of it all.
ABOUT SCRIPTURE CARDS – If you want to send free Scripture Cards to your friends click here and if you want to buy hard copies of Scripture Cards you can click here. To download a free copy of my Story of Survival click here.
Beware the article below is seo (search engine optimised) and was written for this specific purpose by a guest writer.
Out of curiosity
Out of curiosity, to find out what the prevailing perception on the internet is with regards to eternal life, life everlasting and living forever, I asked an experienced seo writer to write me a 500 word article on the subject. Below is what came up. From this we can see that Christians like to hear and believe that God’s promises are true. Christians believe that everlasting life is assured to them who will accept Jesus as their savior. Christians believe that following Christ requires sacrifice, patience, and grace. And to have everlasting life you must be born again.
– This is the beginning of the seo optimised article –
God’s promises are true
Christians believe that God’s promises are true, and they come to pass. The scripture says; those people who have faith in Jesus Christ will attain an eternal life. John 3:16 (NIV) says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” It is wonderful to know that them who believe in Jesus Christ will live forever, long after leaving the earth.
Everlasting life is assured
Everlasting life is assured to them who will accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior. Christians should note that accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior has many challenges, and they ought to make hard choices and difficult decisions. Matthew 16:24, 25 (NIV) say; Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” Based on this scripture, you have to deny yourself the pleasures the world and follow Jesus Christ with all your heart. You have to emulate His way of life for you to live everlasting life.
Following Christ requires sacrifice, patience, and grace
Leaving our worldly life to follow Christ requires sacrifice, patience, and grace. But the reward for getting an eternal life outdoes the sacrifices. All the same, we need God’s grace in order to follow him wholeheartedly. It is clear in the scriptures that for man to live forever, it is by grace not by works. The Pharisees struggled to please God by bringing offerings yet they were ignoring the most important facets of great human existence like love and kindness. Matthew 23:23 (NIV) warns those who are after pleasing God with sacrifices like money and charitable works in order to live everlasting life. It clearly states; “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices- mint, dill, and cumin. But you have neglected the most important matters of the law- justice, mercy, and faith. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”
To obtain everlasting life you must be born again
Jesus Christ told Nicodemus that if you have to live everlasting life you must be born again. Nicodemus wondered how it was possible for an old man to go back to his mother’s womb to get eternal life. In John 3:4-6 (NIV) Nicodemus asked, “How can a man be born when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” 5Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth; no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the spirit.6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit.” This scripture outlays to us that to enter the Kingdom of God we should accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior. Being born again in this context refers to deserting our old sinful ways and accepting to follow righteousness for us to live forever.
– This is the end of the seo optimised article –
God’s promises are true and come to pass
God’s Word tells us that God’s promises are true and come to pass.
However to think that this scripture verse stands on its own and that believe by itself will do is simplifying things a little. The seo article writer indeed goes on to clarify that more is expected of followers. James also puts it quite eloquently,
Jesus said that to obtain everlasting life one must be born again and he himself was baptised in his late twenties by his cousin John the Baptist. We’re supposed to walk as he walked.
Eternal life is not for sale
The seo article makes it very clear that eternal life is not for sale and cannot be bought with any amount of work or money when it states that, ‘It is clear in the scriptures that for man to live forever, it is by grace not by works.’
To be entitled to this grace Jesus tells us that we are to “practice the most important matters of the law- justice, mercy, and faith without neglecting the former.” With this Jesus tells us about the kind of behaviour expected from those who will be drawn by the Father.
When Jesus was asked, ‘What to do to obtain eternal life,’ He told the story about the Samaritan. Jesus told the story about the Samaritan as an example of what is expected from people who may live forever. The Samaritan really went out of his way and worked hard to save a complete stranger.
According to research on the internet the Samaritans are also known as “Guardians /Keepers/ Watchers of the Law /Torah (from the Samaritan Hebrew: שוֹמְרִים Samerim), JewishHebrew: שומרונים Shomronim, Arabic: السامريونSāmeriyyūn) are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant, descended from ancient Semitic inhabitants of the region.
When Jesus answered the lawyer’s question on what needs to be done to obtain eternal life, Jesus did not say that to obtain eternal life we need to have grace and faith and not works, quite the contrary.
Jesus said something to the extent of, ‘To obtain eternal life we must love God with our whole being, love our fellow human beings and keep God’s commandments. In addition we must act like the Samaritan.’
So work does come into it. Work just cannot be used as a bribe.
Sure it is GOD who determines our destiny and we certainly rely on his grace for anything in this life and possible afterlife but if any of us were to think that everlasting life can be bought or is assured for some and that just grace is sufficient to swing those pearly gates in our favour, we may be in for a surprise.Jesus promises to reward everyone according to their works.
There is only one Judge
My curiosity is now satisfied and the above quoted seo article confirms to me that there are gaps in the knowledge on the public domain with regards to living forever and everlasting life.
Yes, we need faith and yes we need grace and yes we also need to work hard to remain in that grace and keep holding on to that faith.
There is only one Judge and when we meet at the pearly gates I pray that they’ll swing wide open for both of us.
It continues to be my prayer for my readers that you all may live forever!
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ABOUT THE CONTENT – All content on this website is copyrighted and you can read more about this here. Please also read the disclaimer about my authority and qualifications.
ABOUT THIS BLOG – We’re researching the truth of living forever according to GOD’s Holy Word; Sola Scripture. Popular opinion tells us that everyone who ‘believes’ and has ‘faith’ will go to heaven. Is this true? I decided to ask the prophets about the truth of it all.
ABOUT SCRIPTURE CARDS – If you want to send free Scripture Cards to your friends click here and if you want to buy hard copies of Scripture Cards you can click here. To download a free copy of my Story of Survival click here.
Thirteenth time the words ‘live(th) for ever’ are used
We’re going through the bible and finding out where the words ‘live for ever’ have been used and in what context. In chapter twelve of the book of Daniel the words live forever are mentioned for the thirteenth time in my bible. They are referred to in verses one, two and three and mentioned in verse seven where ‘a man clothed in linen’ swore by Him who lives for ever. I have copied and pasted the whole of chapter twelve so that these verses can be seen in context.
1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
5 Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river.
6 And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?
7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
8 And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?
9 And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
12 Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.
13 But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.
Everyone found written in the book
Daniel the prophet lived during the sixth and seventh century BC when he prophesied that there would be a saviour of the people, ‘Michael’ who will deliver all people as found written in ‘the book.’ What book? The book of everlasting life?
Some awake to everlasting life; not all but some. And some awake to shame and everlasting contempt. We discussed in an earlier post who the wise are, the ones that ‘shall shine as the brightness of the firmament’ and those that ‘shall understand.’
We know that some of Daniel’s prophecy has already come true because throughout history people have been raised from the death. There are a few accounts of resurrection such as by the prophet Elijah and by Jesus, who is also referred to as Michael (verse 1), where boys and girls and daughters and friends were resurrected and this of course includes Jesus resurrection also.
Scripture states that Yom Kippur is concerning the feasts of the Lord. It does not say, ‘the feasts of the Jewish people’ and it does not say, ‘the feasts of the Christian people’ and it does not say, ‘the feast for followers of the bible.’ No, it clearly says, ‘Concerning the feasts of the Lord … these are my feasts.’
This means that anyone following the Lord, be they Jewish or Christian or followers of the bible are invited to celebrate these feasts. In fact even ‘strangers’ such as any people of any culture are invited to celebrate Yom Kippur as follows,
Most Jewish people celebrate Yom Kippur on the 3rd of October this year but the Karaite Jews, who follow the biblical calendar, have calculated that the Day of Atonement falls on the 5th of October in 2014. Keith and Nehemia were on an interesting trip where they didn’t quite reinstate the calculating of the biblical feasts according to the moon calendar, but they certainly reminded all of us how it is supposed to be done.
On the 10th day of the Seventh Month (Tishrei) is the holiday known as Yom Ha-Kipurim (or Yom Kippur), “The Day of Atonement”. This is a day dedicated to fasting and prayer on which we ask Yehovah to atone for our sins. You can read more about Yom Kippur when you visit Nehemia’s wall and Hebrew4Christians.
A statute for ever
Note the words: ‘it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.’
If you chose not to be part of this feast, according to scripture, you chose not to be part of God’s posse.
Christians seem to argue that the feast days ‘have been done away with’ when Jesus was crucified. However none of my Christian friends have been able to point out where in the bible Jesus or his Father specifically mention that the feast days ‘have been done away with.’
What we do know is that the feast days are called the feast days of the Lord, and were instigated ‘for ever’ throughout all dwellings and this includes the dwellings of the stranger. From this it follows that anyone choosing to be part of God’s posse keeps the feast days as proclaimed. By not keeping the feast days one automatically chooses not to be part of God’s posse.
The other thing we know is that Jesus himself kept the feast days and we are supposed to follow him and walk as he walked.
Live for ever .. feasts for ever
On this blog we examine who is invited to live for ever. Yom Kippur is another one of Yehovah’s feasts to be ‘kept for ever’ and we are invited to attend. You can click here for a guide on how to celebrate Yom Kippur. Each follower can decide for themselves if they want to be part of this feast, or not.
Mimi Emmanuel 