(Note: my apology for putting the same information in Part I and Part IIA. Poor editing on my part. Virg)
Every scriptural truth has practical lessons for our discipleship. Consider just two of other ways Adam and Eve’s single sins tutors us. First, the depth of evil potential in a single sin. Think of Abram’s first lie to the Egyptians about Sarai’s identity Genesis 12:10-20. It nearly cost him his wife’s future. Or his second single lie about her to Abimelech. AFTER God had appeared to the patriarch in Mamre, and AFTER being told that his wife Sarah would bear the promised son Genesis 18:1-15, Abraham very nearly had her sexual purity contaminated in Gerar Genesis 20:1-18. The people of Shinar committed a single sin—exalting themselves in building a city with a tower on which they would build a temple to themselves Genesis 11:1-9. And it cost humanity the single language that united them and divided them into a multiplication of tongues and competitive, territorial, often-predatory nations determined to out-think, out-build, out-grow and OUT-GUN all others. Or think of David and Bathsheba’s single sin. A night with the king turned his entire family into a dynasty of immoral murderers, seducers and conspirators, with three potential successors to the throne dead by violence. One sin! Second, once sin is committed, it must be forgiven here, not in the hereafter. Henry Mencken lived as a confirmed secularist and agnostic. He joyously attacked whatever offended his tastes. While he treated individuals with respect, and had mercy on friends, he had harsh words for groups, including preachers, churches, service clubs, academicians, the government and the “fundamentalist South.” He had his own credo, of course, and a plan after death if he had been wrong. He’d appear at Judgment and be surrounded by the Twelve Apostles. To them he would deliver his well-practiced apology: he had been wrong! Readers Digest Most Unforgettable Characters, 376 However, to show that he hadn’t read the Bible, or didn’t believe what he read—the latter is as dangerous as the former is useless—NO ONE appears before the Apostles for judgment. Everyone appears before the Great White Throne Judgment of God Revelation 20:11-15. And any admission of guilt is TOO LATE! According to II Corinthians 5:10 and Revelation 20:11-15,in-life behavior seals our future state and nothing afterwards changes it. End Part IIB
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