Truth and Faith

Andrew W. P. Gage

• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781098080686
• eBook ISBN: 9781098080693
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Truth and Faith is a book to dispute the worldview, the mentality that Christianity is just another story or fable that we tell our children. Some scientists like to ridicule faith as childhood fantasies or just a human fabrication to answer questions that science can answer better. Psychologists like for us to follow their interpretation of how to live instead of God's way. Even political leaders like to use and abuse religion to gain their own goals. We see it every day coming out of Hollywood, as they try to convince us to think as they do.

Truth and Faith is a book set out to prove faith and truth are to be the same thing. It is not a human understanding or the human way of thinking, but a recognizing of the truth of the world around us, one created by God. If God created the universe, He created how it works. He creates the truth of how the world works.

People believe the universe is chaos, but imagine it is so far above our understanding that it appears chaotic to us, but to God, it is all one big plan. Now apply that truth to faith. After thirty-plus years of studying the Bible, I have discovered that Jesus was in God's plan before the creation of the universe, before the earth came to be. Jesus literally is the image of God because He is God. Adam's sin, Abraham's promise, Moses's law, and Jesus's death were all part of the plan from the beginning, played out for us a little at a time so we could understand, over the millennia, His plan from the beginning.

When Jesus died, He said, "It is finished." The whole plan for redemption from the beginning of the world, the plan, was complete. Come explore these truths with me and judge for yourself.

10

Chapter 10

The Truth About Heaven

Let me first start with a prayer: Father, help us now to understand the meaning of your kingdom, both here and in heaven. There is nothing I can see without you first opening my eyes.

Once before, I prayed a prayer for God to open my eyes to reveal to me something about heaven and Himself. This chapter is an answer to me, not the answer I expected nor even imagined. Nevertheless, it is far greater than what I had asked for. I have learned God never really answers our prayers as we expect. But He answers them better than we could imagine.

When I asked God to reveal to me a bit of heaven, I expected angels and thrones and maybe a vision of God Himself. It was a rather childish request for me to have a visible sign of His kingdom. Asking for so much less than God had to offer me in His wisdom revealed something I desperately needed, something missing in my life. Something that told me more completely about His kingdom, more vital to my ability to exist within it. Something that would lead me to stability and strength in my faith. And I revealed the depth of truth that is God.

This secret is the very fabric of life—church, government, family, and God’s kingdom. All these things are dependent upon a simple truth, a simple example that God placed on this earth to reveal His nature to us, as God has so often done. He provides living, breathing examples of a spiritual truth for us to see and to learn and to understand.

The simple truth is structure. I speak of none other than the family. Read on and discover how God uses the family as the structure of His kingdom, His church, His plan for our future with Him. There is a beauty we all can have and experience through the loving grace and mercy of our Father. Some of you may think this answer too simple; some may feel it too hard to understand, and others may have had less than perfect family lives. Rest assured, this chapter is for all of you.

It is neither simple nor too hard to read. And those who have had hard childhoods will finally have the opportunity to experience true family life. We just need to want it bad enough to be willing to take a chance and open our hearts to God. And God has promised to be there if we ask with a sincere heart.

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13 KJV)

And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. (Luke 11:9 KJV)

This book is only a beginning, a starting place. Open your eyes and let the Holy Spirit reveal to you the truth found in living your life. It will show you what God has shown me. The rest will be up to you.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (1 Corinthians 2:12 KJV)

What can I say about my Father? Your Father? We treat Him as we have treated our natural fathers; we take Him for granted. We do not appreciate the work He does for us, the time, the effort. He works hard to keep His family healthy and provided for. Like most fathers, He seems gone, often at work, giving up of His time so we can live. He is distant, working at work, fixing things at home, and rarely has time to spend playing with His children. It is any surprise to us that He seems so distant, making sure to provide for our needs, giving up his time, knowing we must be cared for? And he could never ignore our needs.

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? (Matthew 7:11 KJV)

If a natural father can treat us with love, how much more can our Father, God? You will see I will always compare our relationships with our natural fathers with our relationship with God the Father. You could almost replace all the words father with God and see how his physical truth mirrors the spiritual truth found in God. Not only does God appear as the father in the family, but also as the mother, brother, and friend. Through the Trinity, I will discuss this more in-depth later.

God has many ways to interact with us in the family. The family is the key to unlocking those truths. What part does the father play in the family? He is the provider, protector, judge, disciplinarian, and example and head of the family. I have already touched on God as the provider. It is also the part we see and recognize the most.

We play the part of God’s children, and we act just like our children do: we grow accustomed to the earth beneath our feet, the air we breathe, the food we eat, and all of life around us. We forget that God provides all this for us. He could stop that in an instant. He could stop, and it would cease to exist. We know our Father is consistent and would not disappoint us, so we take it for granted and are busy playing in our sandbox called the earth. We have forgotten His efforts are an act of love. I do not say these things to promote guilt; not one of us is any different. I say them so we may understand that we to have a place in the family, and we naturally play our part. We are the children of God. As such, we are not expected to have all the answers, nor are we expected to be all-knowing. Our job is to grow, learn, and be children of God.

This is what God calls us to be. God is also our protector. He watches over us while we sleep, guides us away from harm, and provides us with His wisdom: the Bible, to help us avoid harming others and ourselves. He is the father who tells us, “You cannot go to that all-night party,” not to limit our fun, but to protect us from harm.

If you read His Ten Commandments, you would learn that they are not there to keep us from having fun, but rather to keep us safe and sound. Even the commandment to love your God with all your heart is for our sake, and not for His. God could live without us, but we could not live without Him. If we reject Him, we reject that provider, protector, and fail to know truth.

Think about it. What sort of life would we have without law? I could kill you at whim, steal your wife, take your home, and beat you up just because I desire to or just because I am stronger than you. Without law and the Father as judge, there would be no peace anywhere. No hope, no future, and no happiness. No one to decide what is right or wrong. No mediator either in a dispute. No neutral person to judge things. Everything would be chaos. Indeed, life would become a living hell.

God is the father of continuity and order. While Satan is the father of chaos and lies. Well, chaos may appear fun on the surface, it will destroy those who worship it, like it or not. No one likes rules. Yet we could not be happy without them.

God in the role of father maintains order in peace. He provides stability and a haven where we can rest and recover from our struggles. As I start this work. A work that means so much to me. I fear it is a subject so deep that it may be impossible to present to you, the reader. I hope in the Holy Spirit to reveal the truths to you, over my shortcomings. It is a set of truths that must be lived to be experienced fully, to ever truly reveal His entire message.

I once prayed to God to reveal a little bit of heaven to me. Little did I know that that prayer would be answered then as it continues to be answered today. I expected angels or clouds or thrones and such. God, in His wisdom, showed me things far more important than the things I desired to see. He showed me what life is in His kingdom and in a relationship with Him, the ground rules, and the very nature of Himself.

All using examples we find here on earth, what I call one of God’s greatest sacraments is the family.

There is one thing a child fears more than rules and punishment. And that’s abandonment. Ask any orphan, a child rejected by their parents, or who has lost their parents. It is profoundly affecting their outlook on life.

Before we get too heated over this word sacrament, let me explain what I mean. To me, a sacrament is a physical example of a spiritual truth, a physical event that helps us understand the spiritual event behind it. I am not creating a new doctrine or trying to remove an old one, but rather to free us from all potential misunderstandings. The Catholic church refers this to the sacrament of marriage, which has been watered down and forgotten over the years.

The good family is the foundation of our faith, our church, and even our civilization. God has placed this great truth for us, His children, to discover, to experience, and to grow from.

The church also provides this example for us. But the closest and best example can be found in our dad or mom or brother or sister, with all these joys and sorrows. Too simple, you think, or maybe, too hard to see. Follow me in the next few chapters, and I will think you will see the light very differently. Afterward, it may very well open your eyes to see things in a different light.

I believe true faith starts at the point of being born again (conversion to Christ). Faith has no barriers, no select religion, and no worldly leader. God is now your father, Jesus your brother, and the Holy Spirit your friend. Spiritual life becomes a mirror image of the family life here on earth. Our relationship with God is truly like being a member of God’s family, with God as our father, who serves as our provider, who loves, instructs, and disciplines us when we are bad. Jesus is our brother; we look up to Him, speak with Him, share in our good times and bad, and seek Him out when we are in need. The Holy Spirit serves as our friend, someone we interact with, depend on, take advice from, and even experience joys and sorrows with. Every facet of life experienced in the worldly family can be compared to our relationship with God. I believe that is part of the reason that Jesus speaks the way He does about family. Faith is a personal thing between you and the Holy Trinity. Your adoption into this family starts when you search it out.

How Is God Like a Father?

God is the perfect father. He is our Father. He acts like a good father should, and we are His children. When you choose to follow God, you become His adopted child. All the same rules apply to our relationship to God, as it would to our physical fathers. There is no difference. A physical father’s relationship with us mirrors the relationship of God in heaven; that is why the family is sacred. That is also why Satan targets the family as something he wishes to break up. He can pervert the sacredness of family, thus harm God’s children.

We, as adults, tend to think of ourselves as beyond the errors of adolescence. We no longer feel the rebelliousness of our teen years and have become more sensible. We have changed less than we think! The difference is instead of rebelling against our natural fathers, we rebel against God’s teachings. We no longer have to answer to a physical parent; now we must answer for our actions by suffering the results of our own choices. We think of ourselves as adults, but in God’s eyes, we are still little children. When someone tells us like it is, we still go our own way; when we do something wrong, we cover it up, even though it cannot be hidden from God. Truth will never remain hidden forever; truth always comes to the surface. When we do not get our way, we cry (complain) and get angry until we get it. Gee, doesn’t that sound like a child’s tantrum? God has always tried to teach us how to get through life with as little hurt as possible; we just choose not to listen.

The Bible is God’s teachings to His children, how to lead a happy life and be both fulfilled and productive. It’s a book full of cautions on how to avoid danger and how not to destroy ourselves. It is not really any different than our dad saying to us not to run in the street or not to touch a hot stove or not to pull you sister’s hair. It teaches us how to make friends, how to avoid debt, how to have a happy marriage, and much more. We all need these lessons, but God does not stop there. He sends us a helper, a guide, and a shoulder to cry on when we need Him. Before we can get that help, however, we must invite Him in.

If we accept God in our lives, He will send His Spirit to be with us. His Spirit alone can open the lock that is placed on His Word. Only the children of Go...

Table of contents

• Truth—This Misunderstood Word
• Truth and Our Nature
• Truth in Our Natural World
• Truth Healing and Forgiveness
• Sin and Confession
• Wisdom and Truth
• Truth and the Church
• The Freedom to Choose Truth
• Truth and Human Law
• The Truth About Heaven
• Revelations on Heaven?
• Marriage to God
• The Truth about the Ten Commandments
• Living a Life in the Spirit
• Maturity in Christ
• The Law of Love
• Spiritual Revelations
• Spiritual Blogs
• Selfishness and Selflessness of Man
• The Author’s Journey
• Born Again!
• Final Thoughts