Fruit of the Spirit

For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth...Eph 5:9

Spring 2006                                                            Volume 7, Issue 2

I was in prison, and ye came unto me... Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matt. 25:36,40 Prison Report

By Larry J. West

One of the ongoing battles within the prisons is fighting against false doctrines. I know this is also true on the streets but behind the walls we have a microcosm in which everything imaginable in the realm of religion is mixed and stirred together and, as would be expected, it erupts in a multitude of forms of falsity. Two areas that have to be dealt with on a regular basis are total hereditary depravity and the impossibility of apostasy.

I believe one of the clearest statements regarding original sin is to be found in Ezekiel chapter 18. Here God, speaking through the prophet, uses one of their own proverbs or sayings to show how utterly ridiculous this teaching really is.

In verse 2 God asks, “What do you mean when you say, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?’” I don’t know how many have had the experience of biting into a green persimmon, but I have. It is something that is not soon to be forgotten. After you have recovered from the extreme pucker your mouth will long retain its reactionary reflex! How foolish to think that someone could take that bite and someone else have the reaction. It just simply does not work that way! Well, it is just as foolish to believe that, one person can sin and yet God will hold someone else responsible for the guilt.

God declares in verse 4, and again in verse 20, “the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” In other words, it is the one who does the sin who shall be separated from God as a result, not somebody else!

Then God provides a clear and effective example of exactly what He means. In verses 5-18, He uses three generations (grandfather, father and son) as an illustration. The grandfather is just and does that which is lawful and right.

He does not worship false gods; has walked according to God’s word; helps others and treats them right; seeks to provide for the needy; executes true judgment, and in everyway follows the statutes and judgments of the Lord. God says, “he is just, he shall surely live.”

This good man has a son who is a robber, a murderer, or as we might say, “is bad to the core.” He cares nothing about God or other people and worships idols. God’s attitude toward this bad man is, “shall he then live? He shall not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him.”

This bad man has a son who determines not to be like his father, but rather lives like his grandfather. Scripture reveals this message from God about him, “he shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live. As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, spoiled his brother by violence, and did that which is not good among his people, lo, even he shall die in his iniquity.” (vs. 17-18).

I will conclude with verses 19 and 20. “Yet say ye, Why? Doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”

I was in prison, and ye came unto me... Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Matt. 25:36,40

Inside...
Page 1 - True Worship | Page 2 - True Worship (Cont.)
Page 3 - Prison Report | Page 4 - Old Testament Studies
Page 5 - Discouragement | Page 6 - Understandest Thou What Thou...
Page 7 - Christian Evidences | Page 8 - A Remedy For Troubled Hearts
Page 9 - The Christian Home | Page 10 - Continuations
Page 11 - The Children's Page | Page 12 - Continuations

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