Many people are “Turned Off” to anything said in Churchianity
language. Effective communication of Biblical principles to this large number
of people must be done in their language but without vulgarity. The concept of
the Human Condition is well understood and I recently took this approach,
although abbreviated, in such a conversation. I felt it would be good to share This
Evangelistic message with my readers so I pray you come away with a great
understanding of a back door approach to reaching people who “don’t want to be
preached at.”
Origin
of the Human Condition: Eden
Did you ever think of what it could have it been like if
the 1st couple on this planet had not blown it so badly?! Hasn't mankind be
trying to get back to Eden ever since they were thrown out? They may call it “Paradise,”
Utopia,” Nirvana,” or something like that but let’s stick to Eden for now. People
go exploring the frontiers for two reasons, their quest for wealth or Eden. That
original state we were created for motivates many to search for the way back.
So many others are short sighted and are driven by lust, greed, gold fever or
whatever else you want to call it. And the worst motivation is self centered
pride. Well have I summed up what is called the Human Condition? Let's add one
more, something social studies called "Man's inhumanity to man."
Years ago I was in a conversation with some people who were
talking about Communism vs. Capitalism. The root cause of every socio-economic
or political system failure to create the Utopia it is designed to establish
over time is because of greed. Greed, arrogance, self centeredness are nothing
new, they started in Eden. The enemy of our souls touched that nerve and
persuaded Adam and Eve to go after the one thing they were told not to do. Oh
if they only took a second to consider the cost!! Everyone faces that same
moment with every temptation. That cost for those two in Eden was exile, the
eventual removal of Eden from Earth but worst off all was death and separation
from the incredible presence and communication level they had with God the
Father. This was further compounded in that they now had to work for their
food, Eve had to have painful child birth and all of creation was corrupted.
All this and more just because they listened to the enemy of our soul and
opened their hearts to doubt God, to yield to the all the bad character traits
mentioned above.
Examples
of the Human Condition: brothers in contrast
The story of Adam and Eve’s sons, Cain and Able, further
illustrate the out workings of
what happened in Eden. Able was doing what he
was supposed to do the way they both were instructed to do it. He understood
what was expected to get the job done and to gain the approval for a job well
done. His brother, on the other hand, did things his own way, like his parents
he thought he was smarter than to have to follow the Master's instructions. Not
getting the approval for his "excellent alternative "Cain got
jealous, so worked about it that he killed his brother. This was the first
physical death of a human on the planet. This was the first example of
"man's inhumanity to man." So many bad character traits were
manifested in Cain, so many bad motives were allowed to flow through his blind
rage.
Fast forward in time to Noah's era in our history. From
time to time the glaciers of Mt. Ararat have shifted and people have seen he
ark. The character traits we saw in Cain had spread like a cancer through the
generations. Man's inhumanity to man had become so grotesque that the creator
of the universe had to intervene or there would be nothing left. I wonder if
the consequences of the lack of God's intervention would have been as drastic
as all out nuclear war. Violence was the norm, life was not precious and life
on Earth must have been horrific. There are man places in the world today that
must resemble what all the world may have been like and we should pray for God
to be merciful and step into those situations. I always remember the stories of
Jewish life under Hitler. The list of horrific tyrants that slaughtered
millions is lengthy in our history. They’ve answered to God for their actions
and consequences I am sure are eternally horrific. These examples show the
extreme dark side of the human condition. Unfortunately, no matter how “good”
or “nice” or even “Christ like” someone may be, we all suffer the consequence
of what happened in Eden in that we do not have the level of access to God people
had before the screw-up in Eden. We suffer with imperfect bodies and minds, we
get sick, we die physically. The first people were created so perfectly that
they nd their descendants for a few generations had such great bodies that they
lived more than 800 years. There is a remedy and we will get to that later.
Another couple of brothers exemplify the progression of the
consequence of the fall Eden, Jacob and Esau. By any account of Jacob he was a
greedy, self centered, conniving scoundrel. Even at birth he had it in for his
twin brother who was born 1st but Jacob had a hold of his heel on the way out
of the womb. As a young man Jacob is sitting at a fire cooking a fine pot of
soup. His brother comes in from the field starving and the smell of that soup
has him captured. Instead of being a nice guy and offering his brother some, he
hooks that baited fish with a proposition. He says something like, "Bro
you are the first born so you will inherit everything. I'll give you some soup
in exchange for that." Esau isn't thinking straight or he doesn't take his
brother seriously, he is so hungry eating is all he cares about at the moment
so he says, “Ya right, sure, whatever you want just fork over some food.
Esau didn’t take Jacob seriously but he was. When their
father was blind and dyeing, Esau goes hunting to fix his dad a feast of fresh
meat that he knows Dad loves, then receive the blessing of the first born. Jacob,
motivated by his greed, plots with Mom (obviously he was her favorite and Esau
was Dad’s), disguises himself as Esau and brings Dad that feast, only cooked by
Mom. Dad enjoys the food then gives the blessing of the first born to Jacob.
Can’t you hear him saying, “Mom, it worked.” Then Esau goes to see Dad and the
jig is up. Dad can not bless Esau as he did Jacob. Jacob stole the blessing of
the first born. Esau was so angry he was ready to kill Jacob so Jacob runs away
Uncle Laban’s, his mother’s brother who lives a long way away.
Well we all know that “what goes around, comes around.”
Uncle Laban was better at the selfish deception game than Jacob. Basically
Jacob got the worst end of the deal for fourteen plus years. He had to be
married Leah, the ugly older sister for seven years before he could marry Rachel,
the beautiful love of his life. Uncle Laban worked the young man’s butt off for
many years until finally Jacob’s had enough. He gather’s up his wives, his 12
kids and a vast herd of sheep he grew during all those years and decides on
head on home. Jacob thinks that Esau is still carrying the grudge and is
petrified of what his brother will do when he hears that Esau is heading his
way with a small army. Jacob thinks he needs to appease his brother so he
divides his resources and family into droves as peace offerings to Esau. Jacob
had now conception that Esau could have, “gotten over it.” Well Esau had, and
had also become very wealthy so he didn’t accept these peace offerings. He was
just very glad to be reunited with his long lost brother.
The
keys to getting beyond this Human Condition
Something amazing happened to Jacob shortly before he sees
his brother, something life changing. Jacob had a personal confrontation with
God. Have you ever had a mental and emotional wrestling match when facing a
crisis? Jacob still thought Esau might kill him and all his family in order to
regain the birth right. Jacob wrestled with God all night. Jacob emerged from
this night with a permanent limp and a changed heart, so changed that his name
changed from Jacob to Israel, from Deceiver \ Supplanter to Prince. The scoundrel
is now a mature man who understands that God is the King. So many Jewish
prayers begin with the phrase, “Blessed art thou oh Lord our God, King of the
universe…” It is that understanding that begins the process of overcoming the
human condition. In order to follow His ways we all need this change of heart
that is special, personal and life changing.
The second key is to understand that the screw up Eden has
been passed down genetically into every person ever born on the planet. We all
recognize that, ”nobody’s perfect” and use that as an excuse. The expression, “my
bad” is often a ticket from consequences of messing up, of making mistakes. But
mistakes are cost somebody something every time. How many families do you know
of that are not al all dysfunctional? How many companies can produce 100%
perfect product 100% of the time? How many people never suffer the slightest physical
malady? How many women give birth with no pain? Why are there wars? Why is the
earth so messed up as to have famines, earthquakes, tornadoes, deserts or
floods? Why has no one created an eternal utopia?
The answer to all these questions is that humans, as a
race, messed up so badly way back in the beginning. There is a cure, there is a
remedy to the situation but is must be a personal, special thing for every
person. Just like Jacob, we need that confrontation with God where we surrender
to God and accept that He did something so significant, so drastic, that was such
a dramatic show if His loving character as to demand a response. What I am about
to say can not be intellectually grasped in such a way as to change your life. What
God did was to come to Earth as a person, He sent His son as a perfect person
who never screwed up because He was born without the bad gene. It was a
miracle, something that no man could make happen. He was conceived by God in
the womb of a woman without having sex. He broke her membrane on the way out.
He lived a perfect life, He taught us how to live and love one another. Then He
paid the ultimate price of love, taking the Human Condition and allowing men to
kill him in the most horrible, painful way ever devised. He paid the cost of
our screw-ups. Then, as He said He would, He only stayed dead for three days.
He walked out of the grave, showed himself to over 500 people, taught us some
more then went up to heaven.
JESUS
IS THE REMEDY, HE DID ALL THAT BECAUSE HE LOVES YOU.
JOHN 3:16 IS ABSOLUTE TRUTH, that God loved all mankind so
much that He sent His only Son to pay the price for our screw-ups and that
whoever believes on Him will not suffer the consequences of the Human
Condition. Eternal life can be a reality for anyone through surrender to the
King of the universe and acceptance of what Jesus did for us.
ASK GOD FOR THAT SPECIAL, PESONAL CONFRONTATION WITH HIM
THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOREVER, ASK HIM TO RESCUE YOU FROM THE THE
CONSEQUENCES OF THE HUMAN CONDITION.
