AUTHOR’S NOTES

They hated Me without a cause

When you read of why Jesus came to earth and what He did during His lifetime, you are forced to ask a very blunt question:

Why was He hated so much?

Hatred has led to the greatest atrocity being committed in the history of man-kind.

Men all over the world demand that God show Himself and then and only then will they believe in Him, forgetting that is exactly what God did almost 2000 years ago.

Mankind displayed his heart by hating Him without a cause.

God displayed His heart by loving them without a cause.

Their hating put Him on a cross.

His love turned that cross into a ladder to raise them up to heaven.

 What then will ye do with Jesus?

THEY HATED HIM WITHOUT A CAUSE

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The Oxford English Dictionary describes the word HATE as:

Have strong dislike or bear malice to.

I don’t know about you but I have always thought the word HATE had a much stronger meaning, something with a lot more force and venom behind it.

The Reader’s Digest Universal Dictionary describes HATE as:

To feel hatred towards; loathe; detest, dislike, strong dislike or animosity.

I suppose when you think about it, the above descriptions are bad enough.

The word HATE, HATED or HATRED appears 179 times in the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation. From the beginning to the end there is hate. Makes you think doesn’t it?

In the Old Testament there are 141 references to the word HATE. In the New Testament there are 38 references to the word HATE. In the Old Testament the books with the most references are Psalms 41 times, Proverbs 22 times and Deuteronomy 20 times, with 15 out of the 39 books making no mention of the words.

In the New Testament the books with the most references are John 9 times, Luke 7 times and Matthew 6 times, with 17 out of the 27 books making no mention of the words.

The first recorded murder taking place in the Bible is in Genesis 4:8 where it records:

And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.

Although the word hate is not mentioned, I will guess that apart from the obvious envy between the two brothers, hate for the one played a large part in the murder.

It is very interesting what follows the death of Abel.

• The first record of arrogance toward God. (v9)
• The first record of vengeance. (v15)
• The first boast of another murder. (v23)

So it was downhill from here on.

•  The scriptures record the first building of a city.
•  The first mention of one man taking two wives.
•  The first mention of people having cattle.
•  The first mention of people having musical skills.
•  The first mention of people having skills in metal work.
•  And with all this the first mention of society developing.

Sadly though, it is an unfolding story of impoverished progress.

In 1861, Imre Madach published: The Tragedy of Man. A Paradise Lost. In this drama it describes how Adam is cast out of the Garden with Eve, renounces God and determines, through his own efforts, to re-create Eden.

My God is me, he boasts. What I gain is mine by right. I am the source of all my strength and pride.

Does this type of boasting sound familiar?

The drama unfolds with Adam travelling in time through eleven tableaux ranging from glorifying Ancient Egypt until he discovers the pyramids were built on the misery of slaves. So he rejects slavery and admires the Greek democracy. He then forsakes democracy and moves on the worldly pleasures finding it in abundance in hedonistic Rome. He soon becomes miserable and looks to the excitement and chivalry of the Knights and Crusaders. He searches in vain for new reforming principles which crumble one after another before him. He then replaces the hypocrisy of the 17^th-century with the rights of man and when this breaks down into the terror of equality; he embraces individual liberty, which in turn is corrupted by the money-grabbing streets of Georgian London. This all ends rather sadly with a period of scientific Utopia and Adam becoming downcast and suicidal when he at last pleads with Satan himself to let him see no more of his harsh fate and useless struggle.

I would have a guess and say that this drama is unfolding before our eyes today in the 21^st-century.

We live in a rich world where the idea of progress has become impoverished, and I am certain I have read about this in the book of Genesis!

The popular theories of science and technology advancing at a rapid rate and medicine being at the forefront of curing most if not all diseases have been slowly replaced with a realisation (by some at least) that morals and society are treading water. Some even believe that we are sinking back into decadence and even barbarism.

In our drama Adam sees material progress combined with spiritual decline.Recent history has shown us the dreadful consequences of the thinking that individual progress should be shared with the destiny of a nation which was fatally associated with Hitler.

Whenever nationalism becomes the chief organising force of society, violence is never far behind. Unspeakable crimes have been committed in Europe, China, Soviet Russia and Africa by the ruling elite in the eager pursuit of progress.

Sadly, this can also be said of the Crusades in earlier centuries, all in the ‘name of God’.

It was the Australian philosopher John Passmore who wrote:

Men have sought to demonstrate their love of God by loving nothing at all and their love for humanity by loving nobody whatsoever.

Moving on to the 20^th  century we find that humans were seduced into thinking that advancement would come as part of a collective, with an enlightened few assuming the right’ or even duty to impose progress on the masses, whether they liked it or not.

It would appear that the blood of millions during two world wars and many other battles indicated that they begged to differ.

Coercion has always had an attraction for those who do the coercing as an enlightened form of progress; however it has begun to lose much of its appeal, because the modern age belongs to self and material progress in the form of plain old selfish greed mixed up with science which, together confers and wields huge power.

Science is full of examples of technologies that can and are used for ill as well as good. Nuclear power is a good start, going hand in glove with nuclear weapons. Chemical technology and chemical weapons go together. Information technology has revolutionised the way we live nowadays. The internet has spread knowledge and understanding to all corners of the world and I very much doubt whether any child at school today could function properly without the aid of a computer. However this wonderful technology has brought about a host of problems, the likes of which its founders never dreamed possible. Internet fraud, crime and pornography spring to mind.

Advances in Chemistry gave us Aspirin and amazing fertilisers but it also gave us Zyklon-B which was used in the Nazi gas chambers in their diabolical effort to rid the world of the Jewish people. Note the irony in the words GIFTGAS! (German for Poison Gas)

What a gift that was!

The point to be made here is that science in itself is not harmful, but it is very clear that it needs to be tethered to moral progress. It can wield untold benefits but only if it is used wisely, and people need to understand how to stop science from being abused. And to do this they have to look ‘outside’ science to the way people behave.

There is however, another area that needs governing, just as science does and that is economic growth which goes hand in hand with material progress.

It was not so long ago when silk stockings were for the Queen and the ultra-rich; however capitalism found a way of bringing them to the ladies who work in factories. Economic progress does not really correspond to human progress any more than does scientific progress and it is sad to say, wealth does not equal welfare or happiness.

One of the unspoken consequences of status consciousness is that whilst it is good to progress and gain wealth, human nature being what it is, finds that it is not so good after all, because when everyone around you is heading that way as well, it loses its charm and lustre. Once we have eaten well, put a roof over our heads, purchased the newest and fastest car, people want more and the competition for status and the symbols that go with it is turbo-charged. Where will this end? I hear you ask, because there can only be one person who is the richest of all.

It is well-known that material goods do not deliver the emotional stability humans crave.

A recent survey conducted in a top London newspaper lists one of the most worrying trends in society today and that is that people fear that mankind is failing to properly manage material progress. Despite our vast knowledge and skills in every conceivable discipline, we are very concerned about the future and our children’s future and that life, despite all its trappings of huge advancements, health and wealth, is becoming a dismal slog and that the world really is an ugly place. The recent worldwide financial collapse has opened many an eye to the avarice and monumental greed that has been going on and indeed is still going on, unabated, despite stern warnings of almost powerless governments across the globe.

In the United Kingdom one of the first banks to go under as a result of greed and very poor management was bailed out with tax payer’s money to the tune of billions of pounds. Several months later the public were aghast to learn that the bank was carrying on with business as usual as if nothing was wrong. Nothing had changed. The same greed was present. The same poor management was alive and kicking, and to cap it all, hefty bonuses were being paid to the self-same management who brought about its collapse in the first place.

Is it any wonder that those in authority are no longer trusted? Is it any wonder that people yearn for a sense of moral purpose and life-giving dignity.

It would not be far wrong to say that people’s behaviour should NOT be determined and shaped by who is most powerful, but what is right, honest and decent despite the costs.

In the Daily Mail newspaper dated Tuesday, April 27^th 2010 there is an article on pages 32 and 33 entitled THE MOONIES OF MAMMON and it is about the financial giant of America, Goldman Sachs. The fabulously wealthy employees of this institution are known as ‘the haves have yachts’ for their amazing bonus-fuelled lifestyles. These are the financial wizards of the Wall Street Banking system and this Investment Giant has been charged by the U.S. authorities with a £650 million fraud.

The bank is also known as The Machine or more appropriately Goldmine Sachs. It has been described publicly, by Gordon Brown (Ex Prime Minister of Great Britain) and many others, as being morally bankrupt.

It has also been accused of helping the Greek Government to get around EU rules, allowing the country to continue overspending while hiding its debt. Executives have been caught sending emails boasting how much money they were making, while millions of home-owners were plunged into misery by the housing crash. Although they lost some money they made much more by betting against an investment, known as shorts.

Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive is on record as saying that the bank did God’s work in helping companies to grow by assisting them to raise capital which allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth.

He also claimed that he, personally, had attained perfection.

Although Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869, it grew into a mighty bank after the 1929 Wall Street crash, and it was driven by a long-term greedy philosophy that if money was made over the long-term, short-term trading losses could be written off. The strategy was backed up by a work ethic that still exists today. Most other bank employees are at their desks by 9am. At Goldman Sachs, however, employees are present before 7am.

Thirteen hour days are common and most staff are young. Partners earn enough to retire very comfortably by the age of 40. The company is also characterised by an extraordinary culture of secrecy. The Firm thrives on the fact that it is a club: and it is elite. Over and over again they repeat to each other: We are the best of the best. They are constantly reminded that they are entitled to success.

As one employee has admitted, it is the most incredibly driven atmosphere to which you become addicted to, along with the arrogance and to the belonging, and Goldman Sachs employees would sell their grandmother if the company required it. He went on to say: It is like a cult, and working for Goldman is like being part of a cult – you are completely brainwashed into the Goldman Sachs way. 

Many go through up to 70 interviews to land a job, and ‘The Goldman Way’ is knocked into you during incredibly intense training and the firm’s culture has been compared with the Army, the KGB, and the Mafia and as said before, a cult.

It would appear that there are 14 principles enshrined in the Goldman Way, and employees are to learn them by heart, reciting them each morning and before going to bed at night.

One of the mantras includes: We have yet to find the limits to the responsibility that our best people are to assume. Another is: Goldman employees are better than mere mortals.

Greed and arrogance have landed the best of the best in deep trouble and the jury is still out on whether the wheels are about to part-company with The Machine.

Here is some other news that will shock you!

The British firm Game Station, a computer game retailer, announced that it legally owns the souls of thousands of online shoppers.

This is because of a clause in the terms and conditions agreed to by online shoppers. What this means is that the immortal soul clause was added to the contract that purchasers have to agree to before they can make an online purchase.

It states that the customers grant the company the right to claim their soul! Don’t believe it? I’m sorry to have to inform you, but it is 100% true.

This is what the statement actually reads:

By placing an order via this Web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant US a non-transferable option to claim, for now and forever more, your immortal soul. Should WE wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from gamestation.co.uk or one of its duly authorised minions.

The form continues:

We reserve the right to serve such notice in 6 (six) foot high letters of fire, however we can accept no liability for any loss or damage caused by such an act. If you a) do not believe you have an immortal soul, b) have already given it to another party, or c) do not wish to grant US such a licence, please click the link below to nullify this sub-clause and proceed with your transaction.

The retailer did this to emphasize that: No-one reads the online terms and conditions of shopping, and companies are free to insert whatever language and conditions they want to into the documents. Their ‘experiment’ indicates that Game Station actually own about 7,500 souls!

According to Game Station, this was a tongue-in-cheek experiment and that they will not be enforcing the ownership rights and plan to e-mail customers nullifying any claim to their soul.

Another very interesting article I read the other day concerned a college drop-out who, with several others, developed Apple Computers. His name is Steve Jobs, who did not start at the top, but very quickly moved there. It is said that he is the inventor and co-inventor of over 300 patents, with an uncanny ability to see trends way ahead of others. He died of cancer in October 2011 and left an estimated $8 billion fortune. In 1974 Jobs saved enough money to make a spiritual trip to India where he visited Neem Baba and returned to the U.S. a Buddhist. It would appear that, although raised as a Lutheran, he turned his back on his religious upbringing and found ‘comfort’ in the emptiness of Buddhism.

Steve Jobs was an extraordinary man in many ways – as a designer, innovator and a somewhat demanding leader. But his most outstanding quality was his ability to articulate a perfect secular form of hope, and nothing shows this off more than Apple’s early logo. The logo was a rainbow on the very emblem of fallen man – an apple with a bite taken out of it. If you think about this clever bit of design one can only think that it was his way of indicating to the world that science, progress and hope in them was the way forward.

It was a touch of genius which captured the promise of technology in a single glance, and announced that technology could reverse the curse.

Few can deny that the computer has permitted man to accomplish so much so quickly and efficiently, but at the same time it has allowed the spread of so much evil.

In 2003 Jobs gave an address at Stamford University and said:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there, and yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. That is how it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It’s life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now, the new is you. But someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition.”

Sadly this is the empty hope of a world without God.

Death, the last preacher still calls modern man to this final reality. The single best invention of life? Hardly. It was the rebellion of the bitten fruit (enshrined in Apple Corp’s logo) that brought on the sentence of death. It was never the intention of the Creator to have a clearing out of the old to usher in the new.

We need to hear the words of the One who designed and produced the universe, from which designs men like Steve Jobs can only borrow, adapt and imitate.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. John 5:24

I will take His word over Steve Jobs’ any day!

It does not take rocket science to realise that mankind, left to his own devices, waxes worse and worse. In the beginning disobedience led to banishment.

Envy led to hate. Hate led to murder.

Moving on thousands of years later when Jesus walked this earth, He did nothing but good.

He healed the sick. He made the blind to see.

For three years of His life he taught what is holy, what is right, what is just. He invited all who laboured to come to Him and receive rest. He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, and made the lame walk again. He even raised people from the dead!

In reply, they took Him to court, they bound Him, they beat Him and they made a crown of thorns and forced it onto His head. They then nailed Him to a cross, and crucified Him.

In short they killed Him!

In Luke 23:34, the opposite of HATE, pleaded with The Father to forgive them because they did not know what they were doing!

What love! What compassion!

What a Saviour!

What a King!

He is the The King of Kings!

Moving forward a few thousand years, we arrive at the present day in which we live.

Has mankind changed his ways? Has mankind acknowledged God in all his deeds and actions?

We should hang our heads in shame.

The following verses were written around 950 BC by King Solomon and they should shock us into realising that the God of the Holy Scriptures means business:

My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, and let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause: Let us swallow them up alive as the grave and whole, as those that go down into the pit: We shall find all precious substance; we shall fill our houses with spoil: Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:

My son walk not thou in the way of them; refrain thy foot from their path: For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; Which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

Because I have called and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded: But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:

I will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord:

They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

Proverbs 1: 8-31

May I recommend that you read and re-read these verses a few times and let them sink in. The scriptures speak with awesome solemnity to those who reject God and His counsel.

There is a four line poem written by Chester Cholmondeley which springs to mind:

Still as of old

Man by himself is priced;

For thirty pieces Judas sold.

Himself, not Christ.

The 21^st Century could be described as the century of greed, self-centeredness and in partnership with Atheism and Darwinism, the fastest growing non-political movement in the world today. It could also be described as Satan’s masterpiece in his battle with God and the battle over the hearts and minds of people bent on removing any reference to our Creator once and for all.

However, it is not all new, because the ancient conflict between theism vs. atheism, God vs. Satan is soon to come to its dramatic conclusion.

Returning to Adam’s search for happiness and prosperity without God, we see the same drama unfolding, yet again.

The Holy Scriptures declare in Psalm 14:1.

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

God sees fit to repeat this condemnation in Psalm 53:1, by the way, and as far as I am concerned this takes care of the world’s leading atheist, Richard Dawkins, and many many others like him who state that: A belief in God is not only stupid but wicked.

God calls them fools.

In Christ are hid all treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:3

Adam and Eve were fools to disobey God’s commandment to them and were banished from the Garden of Eden. Since then mankind has tried to go it alone, without God’s help, and the mess we find ourselves in is because of this foolish decision.

Throughout history mankind has tried every which way to find happiness, wealth and prosperity coupled with contentment and has failed miserably.

He has tried Eastern Mysticism and discovered a false view of the heart, where feelings lead and dictate. He has tried Greek Intellectualism and discovered a false view of the mind, where the mind is king and men’s philosophies tend toward vain deceit, traditions and worldly thinking. He has tried Jewish Legalism and discovered a false view of the will, where his quest to find acceptance with God is based on performance and assumptions that he can develop righteousness by imposing man-made standards as ‘divine’ law.

There are even those who ‘pretend’ to be ‘god’, leading thousands to stray far from the truth.

Man has withdrawn himself from God and has discovered that life is empty and meaningless. It is a self-centred life with little or no direction having constructed a great political and economic system where people try to be happy without God.

As Dave Hunt, the renowned Christian author, has said:

 We boast of the great cities we’ve built and keep track of our highly praised athletic records: how fast we can run, how high we can jump, etc. and every time I board a passenger jet and glance into the cockpit at the incredibly complex instrument panel, my mind turns to the Arctic Tern. A bird that breeds in the tundra of the far North, then flies for eight months across thousands of miles of trackless ocean to reach its destination near the edge of the Antarctic ice pack, only to return to its breeding grounds. It will cover more than twenty thousand miles in its lifetime. Its instrument panel is its tiny brain and its guidance system is instinct, a capability that no evolutionary process could develop nor any man explain.

Insects and animals outdo us in every physical feat, however, it is astonishing that almost no one on either side of the debate ever mentions the one key factor that separates man from all lower creatures. And that is man’s ability to form conceptual ideas and to express them in words and music and art.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made.

We are made in the image of God our Creator and the lover of our souls. The same cannot be said of any other living creature.

This simple fact reveals the utter futility of searching the world for fossils to find the ‘missing link’ between man and lower creatures of any kind. The futility of searching for the DNA of man and animals for a missing link is equally foolish. The skeletal structure and DNA has nothing to do with who the person really is. Even if the complete skeletons and DNA of Albert Einstein, Charles Dickens and Beethoven could be discovered, would they hold the key to the genius of these men?

Of course not! The REAL person is a nonphysical being living inside the physical body. This is indisputable fact.

Just how far mankind has wandered away from God is a measure of the state of our world in which we live today.

Can we say that things are worse today than in the days of Adam?

Can we say that mankind is more sinful today than when Cain killed his brother?

Apart from the huge advances in technology, can we say that mankind has ‘reached the end’?

The Scriptures give us the answer:

The book of Ecclesiastes has 12 chapters.

It speaks of the following:

• The vanity of all human courses.
• The vanity of pleasure and of human labour.
• That there is a season for everything.
• Vanity is increased by oppression.
• Warnings against abuses in divine service.
• Of old age.
• Remedies against vanity.
• The difficulty of wisdom.
• Kings to be respected.
• Like things happen to good and bad.
• Observations of wisdom and folly.
• The Creator is to be remembered.

The book ends with Chapter 12 verses 13 and 14 which say:

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:

Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.

The book of Ecclesiastes is well worth reading and meditating on.

To sum up, it tells us that apart from God, life is empty and unsatisfying.

Chapter 1:9 answers our question of whether or not mankind is worse:

and there is no new thing under the sun.

Apart from the original sin of disobedience there is one thing that mankind did that changed the course of the whole world.

• It changed mankind irrevocably.
• It brought judgement upon the entire human race.
• It was the most tragic and dreadful deed ever committed.

God’s monumental sacrifice for all of us was:

JESUS

If ever there was a display of the depth, breadth and height of love our Creator has for us, it is wonderfully portrayed in Jesus.

He was taken by man, tried and convicted in a court of law on trumped-up charges in a complete and utter mockery of justice, and nailed to a cross and left to die.

I say again:

It was the most tragic and dreadful deed ever committed by man.

The thought that no one ever was so shamefully treated, as the only perfectly wise, holy and beautiful Person that ever appeared on earth, MUST lead, those who are serious about life, to have very strong views of man’s wickedness and enmity toward God.

We started this document with a look at the word ‘HATE’ and its meaning and I would like to end this document with a look at the word ‘LOVE’ and its meaning.

They are exact opposites.

Hate led to the greatest disgrace human nature could be loaded with.

Love led to the greatest gift being bestowed on us by our Creator.

This is worth pondering over!

At the instant Jesus died, the veil in the temple was rent from top to bottom.

There was a black darkness over the land from noon until three in the afternoon.

They had done their utmost to extinguish the SUN of RIGHTEOUSNESS, with the darkness indicating the blackness of sin under which our Lord and Saviour was when He was made sin for us.

The torn veil spoke of terror to the unbelieving Jews and it was a sign of destruction of their church and nation.

It spoke of an open and LIVING way into the holiest of holies by the shed blood of our Lord.

Let us read probably one of the most terrible verses in all of Scripture:

They hated me without a cause. John 15:25

Mankind reveals his heart by hating HIM without a cause.

So HE revealed HIS heart by loving them without a cause.

In their hating they gave HIM a cross.

They gave HIM a cross to remove HIM from this world.

In love, HE made it into a ladder to raise them up to heaven

The removing and raising are two ways and two choices that each of us must decide on before leaving this earth’s shores.

What will ye do with Jesus?

This is a question every person alive will have to answer.

Do we remove Him from our lives or do we accept Him and let Him raise us up to Heaven?

Do we wallow in the HATE and indifference of this world?

 Or do we bathe ourselves in HIS wondrous love?

  I’D RATHER HAVE JESUS

 I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;

I’d rather be His than have riches untold.

I’d rather have Jesus than houses or land;

I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hands.

 Than to be the king of a vast domain,

Or be held in sin’s dread sway;

I’d rather have Jesus than anything

This world affords today.

I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause;

I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause.

I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame;

I’d rather be true to His worthy name.