Life and Death

When are the living dead? When the living fail to acknowledge the source of life they are dead. Without this acknowledgement there can be no worship of the One who is the only one fit to worship. And in the absence of that worship, there can be no spiritual growth. Without spiritual growth a human being cannot be complete. The spirit that is not allowed to grow will decay in the body in which it resides. That body may show signs of physical life, yet it is spiritually dead. The living body is destined for physical death, but the decaying spirit will outlive the body to live an eternal life of spiritual death.

The spiritually dead cannot be victors over life, which is under the law of sin. They cannot know the Truth, which liberates Man from all forms of bondage. The Truth is the realization that nothing that is created is worthy of worship or devotion, and that the only One who is worthy is the Creator. Neither this realization nor the worship of the Creator is self-achieved. The union of the human spirit and the Divine Spirit achieves these. Such union cannot be forced. It is predestined. Those who belong to the Creator are predestined to belong to Him.

God is the Creator. Man is the created. Man is also a creator, as he is made in the image of God, who is the Supreme Creator. The image of God that Man bears is of a spiritual nature. Like God, Man has the knowledge of good and evil. Yet unlike God, he does not have the power to choose good over evil, as he is under the law of sin, as ordained by God. Man came under the law of sin as a result of his disobedience to God. His disobedience to God was also an act of obedience to the enemy of God, the Devil. The disobedience to God separated Man from God. And Man without God came under the rule of the Devil.

The rule of the Devil over Man’s soul can be undone only by the intervention of
God. This intervention can only take place when Man recognizes God and His Truth. And this will not come to pass by human might and understanding.

There is Divine wisdom, and then there is human wisdom. The two are in conflict, as God and Man are in conflict. Man, who is made in the image of God is unlike God. God chooses good, and Man chooses evil. How then can God’s wisdom not conflict with that of Man?

The wisdom of God is for the benefit of those who have been predestined to belong to God. Even those who have been predestined to belong to God can resist God. Resistance to God is in the very nature of Man. Those who resist God resist life. Let not people of God continue in their error. Though they walk in the path of eternal death, they will not die, for God will not be prevented from having those who belong to Him. The people of God will come to their senses, and turn away from the clutches of death. They will return to their God.

-Samuel Godfrey George