Does God hide truth from the world?

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Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
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30,306
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#61
This wasn't an actual tree and there is no way the garden was a real garden. I always ask myself this questions, if everything was real as is explained in Genesis 2:

Q1. What happened to those trees (tree of life and that of knowledge)? are they still there, where?
Q2. What came to be of the garden afterwards? does the Cherubim still guard East of the garden? why East?
Certainly the Tree of Life is a prefiguring of Christ.

I wrote the following post three years ago :)

As Christians, we are exhorted to bear fruit.

We know we are not trees, but only {metaphorical} branches, offshoots of the true vine, Jesus Christ. I believe He was the {metaphorical} tree of Life placed in the garden of Eden; He holds the keys to life and death; all life is in Him; He is author and giver of life etc, and eternal life is promised to those who surrender to and abide in Him (John 15:4-5).

The fruit we are to bear has different aspects to it. One is character building: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Peter adds to this: make every effort to add to your faith excellence, to excellence, knowledge; to knowledge, self-control; to self-control, perseverance; to perseverance, godliness; to godliness, brotherly affection; to brotherly affection, unselfish love. For if these things are really yours and are continually increasing, they will keep you from becoming ineffective and unproductive in your pursuit of knowing our Lord Jesus Christ more intimately.

So our life surrendered to God, and our works through faith are fruit, and so are people who come to Christ through us (Rom 1:3; Phil 4:17), and there is also the fruit of our lips as we praise God and witness to others (Heb 13:15).

These are good fruits, partaken of when aligned with the will of God.

Evil fruits would be the result of disobeying God, defying God, following self will in opposition to God's will, severing ourselves from fellowship with Him, etc. That is the fruit Adam and Eve bore and ate (lived). They followed the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life, in turning away from God after being in fellowship with Him. It is what we all do before being regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God.

I think it will be wonderful to be restored to the garden in the new earth. Come LORD Jesus.

A&E forfeited their intimate relationship with God by following self will, guided by the pride of life. The Hebrew nations did the same thing when they rejected God as their "head of state" and insisted on having a man as a ruler/king.
 
Sep 3, 2016
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#62
“A STRONG DELUSION

“And for this cause (the rejection of Christ and the Cross) God shall send them strong delusion (if one doesn’t want ‘the Truth,’ God will see to it one receives a ‘delusion’) , that they should believe a lie (should have been translated, ‘that they should believe the lie’; the Greek Text has the definite article ‘the lie,’ which refers to a specific lie, that ‘lie’ pertains to anything that leads a person away from the Cross) :

“That they all might be damned who believe not the Truth (who would not accept the Cross) , but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (The Greek has the definite article, which actually says, ‘the unrighteousness,’ specifying a particular unrighteousness; it is really referring to the results of rejection of the Cross of Christ) ” (II Thess. 2:1-12).”


JSM
 
Sep 3, 2016
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#63
“18 For the preaching (Message) of the Cross is to them who perish foolishness (Spiritual things cannot be discerned by unredeemed people, but that doesn’t matter; the Cross must be preached just the same, even as we shall see); but unto us who are Saved it is the Power of God. (The Cross is the Power of God simply because it was there that the total sin debt was paid, giving the Holy Spirit, in Whom the Power resides, latitude to work mightily within our lives.)

19 For it is written (Isa. 29:14), I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent (speaks to those who are wise in their own eyes, in effect, having forsaken the Ways of the Lord).”

“20 Where is the wise? (This presents the first of three classes of learned people who lived in that day.) where is the Scribe? (This pertained to the Jewish Theologians of that day.) where is the disputer of this world? (This speaks of the Greeks, who were seekers of mystical and metaphysical interpretations.) has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? (This pertains to what God did in sending His Son to Redeem humanity, which He did by the Cross. All the wisdom of the world couldn’t do this!)

21 For after that in the Wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God (man’s puny wisdom, even the best he has to offer, cannot come to know God in any manner), it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching (preaching the Cross) to save them who believe. (Paul is not dealing with the art of preaching here, but with what is preached.)

“22 For the Jews require a sign (the sign of the Messiah taking the Throne and making Israel a great Nation once again), and the Greeks seek after wisdom (they thought that such solved the human problem; however, if it did, why were they ever seeking after more wisdom?):

23 But we preach Christ Crucified (this is the Foundation of the Word of God and, thereby, of Salvation), unto the Jews a stumblingblock (the Cross was the stumblingblock), and unto the Greeks foolishness (both found it difficult to accept as God a dead Man hanging on a Cross, for such Christ was to them);”


1 Cor. 1:18-23


Excerpt From
The Expositor's Study Bible
Jimmy Swaggart
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-expositors-study-bible/id399697870?mt=11
This material may be protected by copyright.
 

Dino246

Senior Member
Jun 30, 2015
25,610
13,863
113
#64
“A STRONG DELUSION

“And for this cause (the rejection of Christ and the Cross) God shall send them strong delusion (if one doesn’t want ‘the Truth,’ God will see to it one receives a ‘delusion’) , that they should believe a lie (should have been translated, ‘that they should believe the lie’; the Greek Text has the definite article ‘the lie,’ which refers to a specific lie, that ‘lie’ pertains to anything that leads a person away from the Cross) :

“That they all might be damned who believe not the Truth (who would not accept the Cross) , but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (The Greek has the definite article, which actually says, ‘the unrighteousness,’ specifying a particular unrighteousness; it is really referring to the results of rejection of the Cross of Christ) ” (II Thess. 2:1-12).”


JSM
2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 does not mention "the Cross" at all. This is more JSM eisegesis. Christ is the Truth (John 14:6). Paul is not writing about "rejection of the Cross of Christ". He is writing about rejection of Christ Himself.
 
Apr 1, 2018
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#65
Does God hide the truth from the world, absolutely but not everybody. He chooses to reveal the truth to those who listen to his word