CHRIST’S KINGDOM

 

Isaiah 25:1	Vol. 5.03  June 2013
THE REIGN OF THE LORD IN ZION – The News of Life. Obadiah 21
Prepare the Table, Watch in the Watchtower, Eat, Drink ... Isaiah 21:5

 

 

This is a monthly Christian Newsletter and hereby state the object of its publication: That we are living in the last days — the end of the Gospel age; as well as the dawning of the long prayed for Kingdom of Christ in power; are facts not only discernible by the close Student of the word, led by the Spirit; but the outward signs recognizable by the world, bear the same testimony: And we are desirous that the “household of Faith” be fully awake. Not only help awaken but to assist them to “put on the whole Armor of God that they may be able to stand in this evil day”. And beside all this, that giving all diligence, they add to their Faith, Virtue, and to virtue, Knowledge, Self-control, Patience, Godliness, brotherly Kindness, and Love; whom trust in the merit of Christ’s Sacrifice for the world. Luke 21:36; Matt. 6:10; Eph.6:13; 2 Peter 1:4-11

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THE PERMISSION OF EVIL

Why Evil was Permitted ? – Right and Wrong as Principles –  God Permitted Evil, and will Overrule it for Good – God not the Author of Sin.

 

EVIL is that which produces unhappiness; anything which either directly or remotely causes suffering of any kind – Webster. This subject, therefore, not only inquires regarding human ailments, sorrows, pains, weaknesses and death, but goes back of all these to consider their primary cause – sin – and its remedy. Since sin is the cause of evil, its removal is the only method of permanently curing the malady – Romans 5:12.

No difficulty, perhaps, more frequently presents itself to the inquiring mind than the questions, Why did God permit the present reign of evil ? Why did he permit Satan to present the temptation to our first parents, after having created them perfect and upright? Or why did he allow the forbidden tree to have a place among the good? Despite all attempts to turn it aside, the question will obtrude itself –  Could not God have prevented all possibility of man’s fall ?

The difficulty undoubtedly arises from a failure to comprehend the plan of God. God could have prevented the entrance of sin, but the fact that he did not should be sufficient proof to us that its present permission is designed ultimately to work out some greater good. God’s plans, seen in their completeness, will prove the wisdom of the course pursued. Some inquire, Could not God, with whom all things are possible, have interfered in season to prevent the full accomplishment of Satan’s design? Doubtless he could; but such interference would have prevented the accomplishment of his own purposes. His purpose was to make manifest the perfection, majesty and righteous authority of his law, and to prove both to men and to angels the evil consequences resulting from its violation. Besides, in their very nature, some things are impossible even with God, as the Scriptures state. It is “impossible for God to lie.” (Heb. 6:18) “He cannot deny himself.” (2 Tim. 2:13) He cannot do wrong, and therefore he could not choose any but the wisest and best plan for introducing his creatures into life, even though our short-sighted vision might for a time fail to discern the hidden springs of infinite wisdom.

The Scriptures declare that all things were created for the Lord’s pleasure (Rev. 4:11) – without doubt, for the pleasure of dispensing his blessings, and of exercising the attributes of his glorious being. And though, in the working out of his benevolent designs, he permits evil and evildoers for a time to play an active part, yet it is not for evil’s sake, nor because he is in league with sin; for he declares that he is “not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness.” (Psalm 5:4) Though opposed to evil in every sense, God permits (i.e., does not hinder) it for a time, because his wisdom sees a way in which it may be made a lasting and valuable lesson to his creatures.

It is a self-evident truth that for every right principle there is a corresponding wrong principle; as, for instance, truth and falsity, love and hatred, justice and injustice. We distinguish these opposite principles as right and wrong, by their effects when put in action. That principle the result of which, when active, is beneficial and productive of ultimate order, harmony and happiness, we call a right principle; and the opposite, which is productive of discord, unhappiness and destruction, we call a wrong principle. The results of these principles in action we call good and evil; and the intelligent being, capable of discerning the right principle from the wrong, and voluntarily governed by the one or the other, we call virtuous or sinful.

This faculty of discerning between right and wrong principles is called the moral sense, or conscience. It is by this moral sense which God has given to man that we are able to judge of God and to recognize that he is good. It is to this moral sense that God always appeals to prove his righteousness or justice; and by the same moral sense Adam could discern sin, or unrighteousness, to be evil, even before he knew all its consequences. The lower orders of God’s creatures are not endowed with this moral sense. A dog has some intelligence, but not to this degree, though he may learn that certain actions bring the approval and reward of his master, and certain others his disapproval. He might steal or take life, but would not be termed a sinner; or he might protect property and life, but would not be called virtuous – because he is ignorant of the moral quality of his actions.

God could have made mankind devoid of ability to discern between right and wrong, or able only to discern and to do right; but to have made him so would have been to make merely a living machine, and certainly not a mental image of his Creator. Or he might have made man perfect and a free agent, as he did, and have guarded him from Satan’s temptation. In that case, man’s experience being limited to good, he would have been continually liable to suggestions of evil from without, or to ambitions from within, which would have made the everlasting future uncertain, and an outbreak of disobedience and disorder might always have been a possibility; besides which, good would never have been so highly appreciated except by its contrast with evil.

God first made his creatures acquainted with good, surrounding them with it in Eden; and afterward, as a penalty for disobedience, he gave them a severe knowledge of evil. Expelled from Eden and deprived of fellowship with himself, God let them experience sickness, pain and death, that they might thus forever know evil and the inexpediency and exceeding sinfulness of sin. By a comparison of results they came to an appreciation and proper estimate of both; “And the Lord said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.” (Gen. 3:22) In this their posterity share, except that they first obtain their knowledge of evil, and cannot fully realize what good is until they experience it in the Millennium, as a result of their redemption by him who will then be their Judge and King.

The moral sense, or judgment of right and wrong, and the liberty to use it, which Adam possessed, were important features of his likeness to God. The law of right and wrong was written in his natural constitution. It was a part of his nature, just as it is a part of the divine nature. But let us not forget that this image or likeness of God, this originally law-inscribed nature of man, has lost much of its clear outline through the erasing, degrading influence of sin; hence it is not now what it was in the first man. Ability to love implies ability to hate; hence we may reason that the Creator could not make man in his own likeness, with power to love and to do right, without the corresponding ability to hate and to do wrong. This liberty of choice, termed free moral agency, or free will, is a part of man’s original endowment; and this, together with the full measure of his mental and moral faculties, constituted him an image of his Creator. Today, after six thousand years of degradation, so much of the original  likeness has been erased by sin that we are not free, being bound, to a greater or less extent, by sin and its entailments, so that sin is now more easy and therefore more agreeable to the fallen race than is righteousness.

That God could have given Adam such a vivid impression of the many evil results of sin as would have deterred him from it, we need not question, but we believe that God foresaw that an actual experience of the evil would be the surest and most lasting lesson to serve man eternally; and for that reason God did not prevent but permitted man to take his choice, and to feel the consequences of evil. (Eccl. 3:10; Romans 8:19-22) Had opportunity to sin never been permitted, man could not have resisted it, consequently there would have been neither virtue nor merit in his right-doing. God seeketh such to worship him as worship in spirit and in truth. He desires intelligent and willing obedience, rather than ignorant, mechanical service. He already had in operation inanimate mechanical agencies accomplishing his will, but his design was to make a nobler thing, an intelligent creature in his own likeness, a lord for earth, whose loyalty and righteousness would be based upon an appreciation of right and wrong, of good and evil.

The principles of right and wrong, as principles, have always existed, and must always exist; and all perfect, intelligent creatures in God’s likeness must be free to choose either, though the right principle only will forever continue to be active. The Scriptures inform us that when the activity of the evil principle has been permitted long enough to accomplish God’s purpose, it will forever cease to be active, and that all who continue to submit to its control shall forever cease to exist. (1 Cor. 15:25,26; Heb. 2:14) Right-doing and right-doers, only, shall continue forever.

But the question recurs in another form: Could not man have been made acquainted with evil in some other way than by experience? There are four ways of knowing things, namely, by intuition, by observation, by experience, and by information received through sources accepted as positively truthful. An intuitive knowledge would be a direct apprehension, without the process of reasoning, or the necessity for proof. Such knowledge belongs only to the divine Jehovah, the eternal fountain of all wisdom and truth, who, of necessity and in the very nature of things, is superior to all his creatures. Therefore, man’s knowledge of good and evil could not be intuitive. Man’s knowledge might have come by observation, but in that event there must needs have been some exhibition of evil and its results for man to observe. This would imply the permission of evil somewhere, among some beings, and why not as well among men, and upon the earth, as among others elsewhere?

Why should not man be the illustration, and get his knowledge by practical experience? It is so: man is gaining a practical experience, and is furnishing an illustration to others as well, being “made a spectacle to angels.” – 1 Cor. 4:9.

Adam already had a knowledge of evil by information, but that was insufficient to restrain him from trying the experiment. Adam and Eve knew God as their Creator, and hence as the one who had the right to control and direct them; and God had said of the forbidden tree, “In the day thou eatest thereof, dying thou shalt die.” They had, therefore, a theoretical knowledge of evil, though they had never observed or experienced its effects. Consequently, they did not appreciate their Creator’s loving authority and his beneficent law, nor the dangers from which he thereby proposed to protect them. They therefore yielded to the temptation which God wisely permitted, the ultimate utility of which his wisdom had traced.

Few appreciate the severity of the temptation under which our first parents fell, nor yet the justice of God in attaching so severe a penalty to what seems to many so slight an offense; but a little reflection will make all plain. The Scriptures tell the simple story of how the woman, the weaker one, was deceived, and thus became a transgressor. Her experience and acquaintance with God were even more limited than Adam’s, for he was created first, and God had directly communicated to him before her creation the knowledge of the penalty of sin, while Eve probably received her information from Adam. When she had partaken of the fruit, she, having put confidence in Satan’s deceptive misrepresentation, evidently did not realize the extent of the transgression, though probably she had misgivings, and slight apprehensions that all was not well. But, although deceived, Paul says she was a transgressor – though not so culpable as if she had transgressed against greater light.

Adam, we are told, unlike Eve, was not deceived (1 Tim. 2:14), hence he must have transgressed with a fuller realization of the sin, and with the penalty in view, knowing certainly that he must die. We can readily see what was the temptation which impelled him thus recklessly to incur the pronounced penalty. Bearing in mind that they were perfect beings, in the mental and moral likeness of their Maker, the godlike element of love was displayed with marked prominence by the perfect man toward his beloved companion, the perfect woman. Realizing the sin and fearing Eve’s death, and thus his loss (and that without hope of recovery, for no such hope had been given), Adam, in despair, recklessly concluded not to live without her. Deeming his own life unhappy and worthless without her companionship, he wilfully shared her act of disobedience in order to share the death-penalty which he probably supposed rested on her. Both were “in the transgression,” as the Apostle shows. (Rom. 5:14; 1 Tim. 2:14) But Adam and Eve were one and not “twain”; hence Eve shared the sentence which her conduct helped to bring upon Adam. Rom. 5:12,17-19

God not only foresaw that, having given man freedom of choice, he would, through lack of full appreciation of sin and its results, accept it, but he also saw that, becoming acquainted with it, he would still choose it, because that acquaintance would so impair his moral nature that evil would gradually become more agreeable and more desirable to him than good. Still, God designed to permit evil, because, having the remedy provided for man’s release from its consequences, he saw that the result would be to lead him, through experience, to a full appreciation of “the exceeding sinfulness of sin” and of the matchless brilliancy of virtue in contrast with it – thus teaching him the more to love and honor his Creator, who is the source and fountain of all goodness, and forever to shun that which brought so much woe and misery. So the final result will be greater love for God, and greater hatred of all that is opposed to his will, and consequently the firm establishment in everlasting righteousness of all such as shall profit by the lessons God is now teaching through the permission of sin and correlative evils. However, a wide distinction should be observed between the indisputable fact that God has permitted sin, and the serious error of some which charges God with being the author and instigator of sin. The latter view is both blasphemous and contradictory to the facts presented in the Scriptures. Those who fall into this error generally do so in an attempt to find another plan of salvation than that which God has provided through the sacrifice of Christ as our ransom-price.

True, God has power to force man into either sin or righteousness, but his Word declares that he has no such purpose. He could not consistently force man into sin for the same reason that “he cannot deny himself.” Such a course would be inconsistent with his righteous character, and therefore an impossibility. And he seeks the worship and love of only such as worship him in spirit and in truth. To this end he has given man a liberty of will like unto his own, and desires him to choose righteousness. Permitting man to choose for himself led to his fall from divine fellowship and favor and blessings, into death. By his experience in sin and death, man learns practically what God offered to teach him theoretically, without his experiencing sin and its results. God’s foreknowledge of what man would do is not used against him, as an excuse for degrading him to a mere machine-being: on the contrary, it is used in man’s favor; for God, foreseeing the course man would take if left free to choose for himself, did not hinder him from tasting sin and its bitter results experimentally, but he began at once to provide a means for his recovery from his first transgression by providing a Redeemer, a great Savior, able to save to the uttermost all who would return unto God through him. To this end – that man might have a free will and yet be enabled to profit by his first failure in its misuse, in disobedience to the Lord’s will – God has provided not only a ransom for all, but also that a knowledge of the opportunity thus offered of reconciliation with himself shall be testified to all in due time. 1 Tim. 2:3-6

The severity of the penalty was not a display of hatred and malice on God’s part, but the necessary and inevitable, final result of evil, which God thus allowed man to see and feel. God can sustain life as long as he sees fit, even against the destructive power of actual evil; but it would be as impossible for God to sustain such a life everlastingly, as it is for God to lie. That is, it is morally impossible. Such a life could only become more and more a source of unhappiness to itself and others; therefore, God is too good to sustain an existence so useless and injurious to itself and others, and, his sustaining power being withdrawn, destruction, the natural result of evil, would ensue. Life is a favor, a gift of God, and it will be continued everlastingly only to the obedient.

No injustice has been done to Adam’s posterity in not affording them each an individual trial. God was in no sense bound to bring us into existence; and, having brought us into being, no law of equity or justice binds him to perpetuate our being everlastingly, nor even to grant us a trial under promise of everlasting life if obedient. Mark this point well. The present life, which from the cradle to the tomb is but a process of dying, is, notwithstanding all its evils and disappointments, a boon, a favor, even if there were no hereafter. The large majority so esteem it, the exceptions (suicides) being comparatively few; and these our courts of justice have repeatedly decided to be mentally unbalanced, as otherwise they would not thus cut themselves off from present blessings. Besides, the conduct of the perfect man, Adam, shows us what the conduct of his children would have been under similar circumstances.

Many have imbibed the erroneous idea that God placed our race on trial for life with the alternative of eternal torture, whereas nothing of the kind is even hinted at in the penalty. The favor or blessing of God to his obedient children is life – continuous life – free from pain, sickness and every other element of decay and death. Adam was given this blessing in the full measure, but was warned that he would be deprived of this “gift” if he failed to render obedience to God – “In the day that thou eatest thereof, dying, thou shalt die.” He knew nothing of a life in torment, as the penalty of sin. Life everlasting is nowhere promised to any but the obedient. Life is God’s gift, and death, the opposite of life, is the penalty he prescribes. Eternal torture is nowhere suggested in the Old Testament Scriptures, and only a few statements in the New Testament can be so misconstrued as to appear to teach it; and these are found either among the symbolisms of Revelation, or among the parables and dark sayings of our Lord, which were not understood by the people who heard them (Luke 8:10), and which seem to be but little better comprehended today. “The wages of sin is death.” (Rom. 6:23) “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Ezek. 18:4

Many have supposed God unjust in allowing Adam’s condemnation to be shared by his posterity, instead of granting each one a trial and chance for everlasting life similar to that which Adam enjoyed. But what will such say if it now be shown that the world’s opportunity and trial for life will be much more favorable than was Adam’s; and that, too, because God adopted this plan of permitting Adam’s race to share his penalty in a natural way? We believe this to be the case, and will endeavor to make it plain.

God assures us that as condemnation passed upon all in Adam, so he has arranged for a new head, father or life-giver for the race, into whom all may be transferred by faith and obedience and that as all in Adam shared the curse of death, so all in Christ will share the blessing of restitution; the Church being an exception. (Rom. 5:12,18,19) Thus seen, the death of Jesus, the undefiled, the sinless one, was a complete settlement toward God of the sin of Adam. As one man had sinned, and all in him had shared his curse, his penalty, so Jesus, having paid the penalty of that one sinner, bought not only Adam, but all his posterity – all men – who by heredity shared his weaknesses and sins and the penalty of these – death. Our Lord, “the man Christ Jesus,” himself unblemished, approved, and with a perfect seed or race in him, unborn, likewise untainted with sin, gave his all of human life and title as the full ransom-price for Adam and the race or seed in him when sentenced. 1 Cor.15:21-22

After fully purchasing the lives of Adam and his race, Christ offers to adopt as his seed, his children, all of Adam’s race who will accept the terms of his New Covenant and thus by faith and obedience come into the family of God and receive everlasting life. Thus the Redeemer will “see his seed [as many of Adam’s seed as will accept adoption, upon his conditions] and prolong his days [resurrection to a higher than human plane, being granted him by the Father as a reward for his obedience],” and all in the most unlikely way; by the sacrifice of life and posterity. And thus it is written: “As all in Adam die, even so all in Christ shall be made alive.” Corrected translation, 1 Cor. 15:22

The injury we received through Adam’s fall (we suffered no injustice) is, by God’s favor, to be more than offset with favor through Christ; and all will sooner or later (in God’s “due time”) have a full opportunity to be restored to the same standing that Adam enjoyed before he sinned. Those who do not receive a full knowledge and, by faith, an enjoyment of this favor of God in the present time (and such are the great majority, including children and heathen) will assuredly have these privileges in the next age, or “world to come,” the dispensation or age to follow the present. To this end, “all that are in their graves...shall come forth.” As each one (whether in this age or the next) becomes fully aware of the ransom-price given by our Lord Jesus, and of his subsequent privileges, he is considered as on trial, as Adam was; and obedience brings lasting life, and disobedience lasting death – the “second death.” Perfect obedience, however, without perfect ability to render it, is not required of any. Under the Covenant of Grace, members of the Church during the Gospel age have had the righteousness of Christ imputed to them by faith, to make up their unavoidable deficiencies through the weakness of the flesh. Divine Grace will also operate toward “whosoever will” of the world during the Millennial age. Not until physical perfection is reached (which will be the privilege of all before the close of the Millennial age) will absolute moral perfection be expected. That new trial, the result of the ransom and the New Covenant, will differ from the trial in Eden, in that in it the acts of each one will affect only his own future.

But would not this be giving some of the race a second chance to gain everlasting life? We answer—The first chance for everlasting life was lost for himself and all of his race, “yet in his loins,” by father Adam’s disobedience. Under that original trial “condemnation passed upon all men”; and God’s plan was that through Christ’s redemption-sacrifice,  Adam and all who lost life in his failure, should, after having tasted of the exceeding sinfulness of sin and felt the weight of sin’s penalty, be given the opportunity to turn unto God through faith in the Redeemer. If any one chooses to call this a “second chance,” let him do so: it must certainly be Adam’s second chance, and in a sense at least it is the same for all of the redeemed race, but it will be the first individual opportunity of his descendants, who, when born, were already under condemnation to death. Call it what we please, the facts are the same; viz., all were sentenced to death because of Adam’s disobedience, and all will enjoy (in the Millennial age) a full opportunity to gain everlasting life under the favorable terms of the New Covenant.  This, as the angels declared, is “Good tidings of great joy which shall be unto all people.” And, as the Apostle declared, this grace of God – that our Lord Jesus “gave himself a ransom for all” – must be “testified” to all “in due time.” (Rom. 5:17-19; 1 Tim. 2:4-6) Men, not God, have limited to the Gospel age this chance or opportunity of attaining life. God, on the contrary, tells us that the Gospel age is merely for the selection of the Church, the royal priesthood, through whom, during a succeeding age, all others shall be brought to an accurate knowledge of the truth and granted full opportunity to secure everlasting life under the New Covenant. – (Acts 15:14-17; Rev.22:17)

But what advantage is there in the method pursued? Why not give all men an individual chance for life now, at once, without the long process of Adam’s trial and condemnation, the share by his offspring in his condemnation, the redemption of all by Christ’s sacrifice, and the new offer to all of everlasting life upon the New Covenant conditions? If evil must be permitted because of man’s free moral agency, why is its extermination accomplished by such a peculiar and circuitous method? Why allow so much misery to intervene, and to come upon many who will ultimately receive the gift of life as obedient children of God?

 Those who can appreciate this feature of God’s plan, which, by condemning all in one representative, opened the way for the ransom and restitution of all by one Redeemer, will find in it the solution of many perplexities. They will see that the condemnation of all in one was the reverse of an injury: it was a great favor to all when taken in connection with God’s plan for providing justification for all through another one’s sacrifice. Evil will be forever extinguished when God’s purpose in permitting it shall have been accomplished, and when the benefits of the ransom are made co-extensive with the penalty of sin.

Not only are men benefited to all eternity by the experience gained, and angels by their observation of man’s experiences, but all are further advantaged by a fuller acquaintance with God’s character as manifested in his plan. When his plan is fully accomplished, all will be able to read clearly his wisdom, justice, love and power. They will see the justice which could not violate the divine decree, nor save the justly condemned race without a full cancellation of their penalty by a willing redeemer. They will see the love which provided this noble sacrifice and which highly exalted the Redeemer to God’s own right hand, giving him power and authority thereby to restore to life those whom he had purchased with his precious blood. They will also see the power and wisdom which were able to work out a glorious destiny for his creatures, and so to overrule every opposing influence as to make them either the willing or the unwilling agents for the advancement and final accomplishment of his grand designs. Had evil not been permitted and thus overruled by divine providence, we cannot see how these results could have been attained. The permission of evil for a time among men thus displays a far-seeing wisdom, which grasped all the attendant circumstances, devised the remedy, and marked the final outcome through his power and grace.

 

LUGANDA TRANSLATION in brief.

 

OKUBAAWO KW’OBUBI !

 

Lwaki Obubi bwajja oba bubaawo ? Eteeka ly’Obulungi n’Obubi
– Katonda si yeyaleta Ekibi n’Obubi.

     Obubi ky’ekintu ekireteera obulumi oba okubonabona ekwengeri zona. Kale tutunulira ensibuko y’Obubi, ne tulaba nga bwajja lwa Kibi. Kale bwe kiba nga Obubi bwajja lwa Kibi, bw’ekityo, bw’ojjawo Ekibi, olwo, nga n’Obubi obumazeewo. Kino kye tugenda okulaba mu musomo gwaffe guno:

Kale omuntu kyangu okwebuza nti Lwaki Mukama Katonda ow’ekisa yaleka Obubi okufuga wansi w’enjjuba? Lwaki Katonda yaleka Sitani okukema bakadde baffe abasooka, Kaawa ne Adamu  songa bali batukiridde mu buli kimu ?? Oba Katonda teyaliziyiza mu maanyi ge omuntu obutayoonona ? Oba obutasimba muti guli mu Lusuku ?

Obuzibu eri abangi buva ku butalaba lwaki Katonda teyaziyiza bubi kujja oba ekibi; naye oba yakireka, alina okuba n’ensonga ey’amaanyi, era nga Katonda bwali omutuukuvu, nga yakireka olw’Obulungi. Bwe tutunulira mu bujjuvu entekateeka ya Katonda, waliwo amageezi mangi Mukama okukola bwatyo, kuba Mukama alina obusobozi n’obuyinza okusanyaawo Sitani oba okumuziyiza, naye teyakikola, olw’ebugendeererwa bye ebirungi !! Katonda yaleka kino okubaawo olw’ebitonde bye okuyiga empeera y’obujjemu era obuzito bw’obubi, nti Amateeka ge ag’obutuukirivu tegakyuuka. Waliwo ebitasoboka eri Katonda, gamba nti Katonda talimba (Abeb.6:18); Tasobola Kw’egaana yekka (2 Timusewo 2:13). Kale tasobola ku kola ekitayambe, y’atonda ebitonde bye ng’abyagala era abitegeekera ebirungi bingi so si bubi. Ebyawandiikibwa biteegeza lwatu nti Katonda yatonda ebintu byonna olw’Okwagala kwe n’oburungi bwe ye (Okubikk.4:11).

Mukama Katonda akyaawa obubi bwona (Zzabulu 5:4), naye nga bwe y’atonda ebitonde bye ng’abyagala, aleka ekibi okubitawanya akaseera, ng’alaba nti mu maaso ebitonde bye binagyamu eky’okuyiga, ekinabiyamba okubeerawo mu butuukirivu emirembe gyonna. Tulaba nti buli awali enkoola y’oburungi, wasobola okubaawo obubi, ekirungi n’ekibi. Kale ekirungi ky’ekyo ekisanyusa era ekisanide eri Katonda n’abantu. Mu teeka lino ery’okumaanya obulungi n’obubi, Katonda mwe yatondeera ba Malayika n’Abantu. Mukama teyayagala kukola muntu nga kyuma, oba, nga amanyi burungi bwokka. Kino si bw’ekyaali. Obusobozi bw’okwawula oburungi n’obubi, kirabo kya Katonda, era bw’atyo n’akola omuntu mu kifaananyi kye, omuntu asobole okwawula oburungi n’obubi (Olub.3:22). Kale bwatyo Katonda, kwe kusooka okuteeka omuntu mu lusuku, mu mbeera enungi alabe ku burungi mu bujjuvu. Kale omuntu bwe yagobwa mu Lusuku lwa Katonda olw’obujjemu, kyaleteera omuntu okuyiga empeera y’ekibi oba obubi.

Tulaba nti okuwa omuntu omukisa ogugezesebwa, Katonda ya kiraba nga kigya ku yamba abantu okuteegeera obuzibu obuli mu kibi, era bwe butaziyiza muntu kukola kyonna kyayagala. Kino kyaleteera omuntu okw’onona era n’empeera y’ekibi. Kino Katonda yalaba nga kya kuyamba omuntu – Omubulizi 3:10; Abaruumi 8:19-21. Mu mirembe eginaddako, abantu abagala obulungi era abakola Katonda by’ayagala be bokka abanaweebwa obulamu obutagwaawo, naye bonna abagyemu n’abakola ebitalimu ba kuzikirira – 1 Abbak.15:25-26; Abbeb.2:14. Kuno kwe kuyingira mu kufa okw’okubri.

Batono abalowoza ku kibonerezo Katonda kye yawa Adamu, okufa olw’okulya ekibala – ensobi eyo nti ntono, bwo tunulira okubonabona okwajjira Adamu n’Abaana be! Eva ye yalimbwa songa Adamu yasalawo okugobereera Eva, olwo bombi ne bonoona (1 Timuseewo 2:14). Adamu kwe kusalawo obutasigala yekka wabula naye afe ! Tukiraba lwatu nti Katonda ya tekateeka  okununula omuntu, bwatyo mu ngeeri eno, Katonda n’akola ekinunulo ky’abangi ngayita mu kusasulira ekibi. Kino tukiraba mu MUTANGO omuntu Yesu gwe yawaayo, bwatyo n’afa nga adda mu kifo kya Adamu. Kino tukisoma mu byawandiikibwa bingi – 1 Temusewo 2:3-6. Kino kye kitegeezebwa mu 1 Abakkolinso 15:21-22 – nti “Kubanga okufa bwe kwabaawo ku bw’omuntu, era n’okuzuukira kw’abafu kwabaawo ku bwa muntu. Kuba bonna nga bwe baafira mu Adamu, era bwe batyo mu Kristo bonna mwe balifuukira abalamu.”

Abantu abamu barowooza nti Katonda ya tonda abantu be okufa era bwe batyo bagende mu kubonabona emagombe oba mu Geyenna ! Wewaawo ebyawandiikibwa biraga geyenna, naye bino bya bubonero oba ebigambo ebikusike era nga bw’ekitegezebwa mu Kubikkulirwa 1:1-3 ne mu Luka 8:10. Kale Puligatoli n’okubonabona ng’omuntu afudde, tekiriyo mu Baibuli. Okufa kitegeeza kufa, era embeera bw’eyali  nga omuntu tanatondebwa (Olub.3:19, Ezekiel 18:4, Omubulizi 9:5-6,10; Zabbuli 146:4, 6:5). Bw’ekityo, Katonda alaga nga okufa kwa Yesu bwe kwasasulira ekibi kya Adamu era bonna ba kuweebwa omukisa gw’obulamu – Okuzukira n’okuzibwa obugya, n’okuweebwa obulamu obutagwaawo – (Abaruumi 5:12, 18-19; 1 Abakkolinso 15:22).

Tukirabye lwatu nti abantu bonna ba kuweebwa omukisa mu kiseera ky’okuzukira era kwe kufuga kwa Yesu n’Ekkanisa ye, okumala emyaka lukumi (Okubikk.20:6, 5:9-10). Buno bwe Obwakabaka bwa Katonda obusabwa ennyo – Matayo 6:10.  Walibaawo okuzukira kw’abantu bonna nga bava mu ntaana – Yokaana 5:26-29, abatuukuvu n’abatali batuukuvu – Ebikk.24:15. Olw’o bonna abanazukirira omusango oba okuvunula okutuufu ogezesebwa, bayige obutuukirivu era n’okutegeerera ddala Mukama Katonda – Isaaya 26:9, Zabbuli 96:9-13, Isaaya 11:1-9. Kale ebyawandiikibwa biraga nga Obulokozi bw’ekkanisa n’abantu bonna nga bwa mitendeera, kuba Ekkanisa, ye ne labirira n’okuyigiriza Abantu abalala – Ebikk.15:14-17, Okubikk.22:17. Kale tukiraba lwatu nti ewatali kuyiwa musaayi, mu kusasulira ekibi kya Adamu, tekyalisobose kununula muntu. Eteeka lya katonda oly’obwekanya lyasalira omuntu omusango gw’obwonoonyi era Katonda tasobola ku limenya wabula kwe kulitukkiriza, asobole okununula Adamu n’abaana be bonna. Wano Yesu kwe kufa n’aba OMUTANGO gw’Adamu n’abaana be bonna !! Kino ky’ekiisa kya Katonda eri abantu bonna. Kino kireteera abantu bonna okufuna omukisa ogw’okugezesebwa kinomu. YESU kwe kufirira bonna, kuba ate weyafirira, nga obukade bw’abantu baffa dda, bano balina okuzukira ne bayigirizibwa Amazima, ekisa kya Katonda, n’abo okukkiriza n’okuweebwa obulamu obutaggwaawo. (Abeb.2:9, 9:28).

 

Amina.

 

THE DIVINE PLAN OF AGES

“A Plan of Ages, which he formed for the ANOINTED Jesus our Lord”
— Eph. 3:11, Emp. Diag.

“Write down the Vision and make it plain upon tables that every one may read it fluently.”
— Hab. 2:2-3 L.T.

The 3 Worlds — 2 Peter 3:5-13

 

YOUR OPPORTUNITY:

Free BIBLE STUDY Course By Correspondence & Open to All Christians from all Churches   OMUSOMO GWA BAIBULI nga gwabwerere! You can write to us or Call us:   Uganda Bible Students, P.O. Box 28734 Kampala, Tel:  (+256) 0753 116 202 / 0776 116202 Or 0782 318 033 Email: Eliezer_biblestudy@yahoo.com   FIND THE TRUTH ! … John 17:17 Math.25:6: “Behold the Bridegroom …”

SOME BIBLE TOPICS TO BE COVERED: (EGIMU KU MITWE EGIYIGIBWA) 1.  Why does God permit Evil/ Satan to do injury? (Lwaki Katonda owekisa aleka Satan okukola obubi?) 2.  The Most Holy Faith — the Faith which was delivered to all Saints. (Okukkiriza okutukuvu enyo - Okwaweebwa abatukuvu ba Katonda.) 3.  The study of Bible Covenants. (Okuyiga Endagaano Za Katonda mu baibuli) 4.  Church History— The Seven Churches and Seven Angels; Rev. 2 (Ekanisa Omusanvu ne Bamalayika baazo Musanvu — Okubikkulirwa 2) 5. The Armageddon & The End of the World. (Olutalo ddekabusa  era olwenkomerero y’ensi) 6.  Tongues, Miracles, Visions and Prophesying. (Ebyamagero, Okulabikirwa, Okwogera mu nnimi era n’Obwanabbi) 7.  The TRUE Christian Baptism! (Okubatizibwa okuli mu byawandikibwa, okw’amazima.)           And many others (Nebirala)!!!!

 

DESIRING GOD’S GREAT BLESSING!

Desiring to obtain God’s blessing but indifferent in doing His will results in failure. Serving and improving the life conditions of your fellow men towards God, is one source of God’s blessing. Therefore, desiring to spread God’s Message of life but thinking you are too busy with work of whatever sort, poor to give financial support as you may not have enough for food, or you are not talented to speak, or feeling bodily imperfection that a person may ask you what you can not explain; yes in whatever form of constraint: We advise you to consider the many and varied opportunities the LORD of heaven has placed before you to serve your fellow men and women; Example, obtain copies of this monthly Newsletter — look at People interested in God’s word around you; at work place, home, neighbors, at your church, sending a copy to mother, father, friends & relatives in different places of the Country. Those who could promote this work in other right way, the opportunity stands. Yes, how refreshing and motivating you may contribute to changing Peoples lives, and yourself be God’s righteous Servant in the belief of Christ and the TRUTH.

 GROWING IN FAITH

Growth in faith is a desired state of Christian for desired fruitage of Christ likeness; But this must be in line with the will of God as expressed in 1 Thess. 5:21 KJV — “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” In line with this exhortation we advise all who are earnest students of Scriptures and our Newsletter, to prove all our studies with the only standard given by God (Isaiah 34:16) and please communicate to us!  It is also, our privilege to share the message of God’s love with others; hence we advise those who received the first publications to share them with God’s People.

 

Christ’s Kingdom is a monthly Publication by Uganda Bible Students:

All enquiries and subscriptions to be addressed to:
The Editor, Christ’s Kingdom, P. O. Box 28734, Kampala, Uganda.

Email: Eliezer_biblestudy@yahoo.com

Tel: (+256) 753 116202 / 0776 116 202.
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