This statement came immediately after the Fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden, but doubtless it is the continuation of a pattern that Adam anticipated when he hid himself among the trees of the garden. Some things are not important, I suppose, but God has not told us in the word every detail of the relationship between Adam, Eve, and Himself at the first. I am sure God could have made Adam and Eve mature in body and in mind, but likely there were things for them to learn which they would need for their lives to be happy, things which they could learn through experience and exposure to instruction.

There is no problem for me to believe that Adam and Eve enjoyed a fellowship with God and God with them in the garden. When sin entered, however, that fellowship was broken. This explains his hiding and contributes to the shame they felt immediately. Good parents communicate their own knowledge and experience with their children, beginning at a very early age. Their whole lives thereafter are influenced by what they learn at those early hours of fellowship with mother and father. Such fellowship with parents may not provide the character and restraints that Christian fellowship would have provided. But the parent who fails in this area is deeply guilty of leading his children astray.

DO WE WANT OUR CHILDREN TO LEARN OUR WAYS?
We can expect that Jewish children learn Jewish ways. Why should they not? But the public education system in America contributes whole chunks of wrong thinking to the lives of young people. Even if nothing moral or religious is taught in the classroom, association with other children opens the door to ideas and practices which parents at home would not have their children know, much less think and do. Our mind-set, our habits, our thoughts, and our actions are governed by what we were exposed to as children.

It used to be said that Catholics said, "Give us your child until he is seven years old, and he will be a Catholic always." They may never have said such a thing, but the principle is right, even if the teaching is wrong. The things we come to appreciate and desire are things that were given us as small children. The profuse talk nowadays about "our children" is scary. Mix this talk with demands for "day care," "child abuse," "sex education," and a few other things of the world, and we are faced with overwhelming influence designed to destroy Christianity, the Bible, and Judaism.

Even Baptists rise to the defense of the court's decision that prevents any mention of God in school. The argument is, "Do you want others teaching religion to your child." No, but I do not want them forbidding the mention of my religion, of my God, of the Bible. I know that atheism is a religion; evolution is a religion, and the so-called liberty to believe anything and everything is also a religion.

And those religions, without God and the Bible, are taught to our children by word and example every day. These new religions belong to their father the devil (John 8:44). There are no truly free men who can believe freely what they want to believe and do what they want to do(Romans 14:8). Our society teaches us that our actions must be within the limitations of our culture or society. This is why some things are illegal, criminal, and subject to penalties set by society through their government.

In view of so many false religions, including evolution, atheism, liberalism, and the more formal so-called Bible religions, it is important that we realize where these things come from. It can never be too early to start instilling Truth into your child, but it definitely can get too late, and in most cases it already is.

BEWARE OF NEW RELIGIONS
Truth is not new. God has been its Author 'since the beginning. A most deceptive technique for error is to just not give it a name. There is neither formal designation nor organization for "New Age" religion. In fact, its advantage in deceiving men is that it does not assume the scars of older religions whose time among men has allowed the introduction of controversy. If one does not claim to believe this or that, then he can deny it, though he believes it and maybe advocates one or the other.

Nearly every false doctrine or practice is included in the scheme of this age. New Age is a term which embraces most all of them. Those people not schooled in the dogmas of formal religion that has the Bible for its base become easy victims. Let me give you a few elements of New Age-ism. A TV program called Unsolved Mysteries includes frequent references to UFOs, the occult, the Ouija board, meditation, and other elements of paganism. These things are not new but they are certainly warned against in the Bible. Nobody talks of these as being myths, yet the Bible is called a book of myths.

Why the attraction of these false teachings? Is it not true that human beings have a built in affinity for anything supernatural. Some are willing to satisfy this yearning through the development of human abilities, whether of body or mind. Hence sports, 'body building, the occult, and "mind over matter" practices hold a real attraction for those in need of filling that God shaped space in their lives, and doing it without allowing God Himself in.

Because the heart is left blank where God ought to dwell fully, men seek satisfaction in all these strictly human or demon spirit matters. Have you thought that your willingness to seek satisfaction in sports might be because your heart has not found its satisfaction in its Maker?

JUDAISM IS THE OLDEST TRUTH-BASED RELIGION
This does not mean that a substantial amount of error has not crept into it. It includes a brief history of humanity from the beginning. But a number of traditions of the elders (Rabbis) and others has crept in to change that Truth. God gave Israel the inspired Scriptures of the Old Testament. Jews do not describe them as Old Testament, ordinarily, but use the word TENACH.

Their designation of their Scriptures is as Law (TORAH, meaning doctrine or teachings), Prophets, and Writings (mostly Psalms or poetical books). The word TENACH is an acrostic, T-N-CH, from names designating these three parts.

The first, Torah, means doctrine or teachings. Much tradition surrounds this, which we usually refer to as law. It is thought that it was known in heaven and was then handed to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Another idea is that all nations were offered the law (Torah) but only Israel was willing to take it.

The second section is Nabi'im ('prophets'), the third is Kethubim ('writings' - from Kathab, otherwise spelled CHathab, meaning, 'he wrote').

The five books of Moses constitute the Torah, or Law. The Nebi'im, Prophets, were comprised of historical books, Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the prophets from Hosea through Malachi in our Bibles. Those twelve were counted as one book.

The Sacred Writings section, or Kethubim, finished the Scriptures for the Jews. This section was divided into the Wisdom books (Psalms, Proverbs, and Job) and the Megiloth, meaning lengthy and involved explanations, (Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther, plus some which are prophets, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, and the history books of 1 and 2 Chronicles). By combining several together they then had a total of twenty-four books in their Tenach, where we have thirty-nine in our Old Testament.

You need to remember that the Bible was not all written at once. Even though it is all inspired of God, it came over a long period of time. The books came separately. Deciding which belonged in this or that place or order (the Canon of Scripture) became the work of scholars who used various criteria for making such decisions. Hence, among Catholics there are many books not in our Bible, totaling some 72 where we have 66. The Jews have 24 in all (where we have 39), made up of those we have named.

Naturally they reject our New Testament. They also place much confidence in writings by men. These are writings by "interpreters." As these books were translated they were called Targum. The names of all these writings often reflect the time and teachers who took a part. The Old Testament used when Jesus was on earth, translated by seventy elders in Israel, is called LXX, that is The Seventy, or Septuagint.

All of this may only confuse people who hang onto the good Old King James Translation. I do not join the ranks of scholarship who feel we must know Greek and Hebrew and must determine what portions are right and what wrong (Textual Criticism). All translations are but human works, but most of the translators were probably conscientious. Even these must have allowed their own ideas to show through into the work they produced.

Why does not God preserve His Word perfectly accurate as it is claimed from the original language? This specious argument fails, for then we would demand to know why anybody is allowed to make a mistake when using it, including preachers and writers.

The challenge is that we all study to show ourselves approved to God (2 Timothy 2:15), remembering that it is all God-breathed (inspired). We should not expect expounders to be prevented from making mistakes any more than we think all people should be prevented from error.

This fact makes it necessary for every man to feel responsible to believe the Truth as God meant for us to receive it. If something seems contrary to our feelings, our natural bent, or "what we have always heard (or thought)", then we are bound immediately to submit ourselves to God in our hearts and trust Him, asking Him, to direct us into His Truth.

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do" Hebrews 4:12, 13

What is meant by "the word is quick"? It means that it is living. How and why is it powerful? This Greek word occurs only three times in the New Testament. The other two are translated effectual, which is good. It means "it works" and "it is operative." It is active. It either brings one to God's state of mind regarding His Word, or it causes the individual who has rejected it to become harder.

Reading the Bible, or even listening to scriptural preaching, is never a useless exercise, for it always produces a result in our hearts. We are either nearer to God and Truth, or we are farther away, and our hearts somewhat harder.

Note that reference to the Word is combined with reference to God as seen in the pronoun. We have "Word of God" as the subject, but flows naturally into its operation: "open to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do." The infinite, sovereign God sees and knows every heart and every mind. The implication of the language is that God not only knows what our thinking is as we read it, but He causes us to know that He knows and makes us aware when we err, if in sincerity we look at what is being said.

This claim is made for God's words in the Old Testament. Does He intend for it to fail when it is preached or taught? No. I feel He desires that all men come to Him, for He indicates as much in the Word. That the inspired Word "shall not return" means that God will not take it back, change His mind, nor revoke it. But He does not mean to leave him guiltless who hears that Word and deals with it as though it were the word of a man.
Would every reader, today please know that God has given us a word which is effectual It works God's purpose in every heart which allows it a fair hearing. It works condemnation upon every rebellious heart. it is living and effectual, so that it does one of two things:

1) turns one to God and right, or…
2) it hardens his heart so that he is not innocent nor even as likely to give it a fair hearing later.

THIS NATION IS IN A BIND
We are happy for those liberties granted us in America. But we surely are guilty in government and in those consenting to the restrictions placed on the Word. Is it forbidden in schools out of fear of what it will do to men? Whatever justification we use for this, though it be done in the name of protecting the rights of those who are atheists, we are still guilty, when we restrict the rights of those who believe it.

It is done in the name of liberty, but it allows liberty only to those who reject God's Word. Why should all men be required to "aid and abet" the unbelief or rebellion of an atheist or an infidel? If we quietly accept the restrictions can we be guiltless? With the liberty of teaching or talking which we have - freedom of speech - can we not say that one is still responsible to believe the Bible and be guided by it? How can it be "against the law of the land" to do what God has told us to do? "Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).

I am not saying that Bible courses have to be taught in schools. it is the parents' duty to teach their own children, but we can see what this has done to our nation. It has taken off much of the restraint which our culture had upon it, which past history had built up. It repudiates the founders of our country who felt we were a nation under God. What the law does is to tell us that God and the Bible ought to be granted time only to those who want Him and it. All others are free to go the way their depraved hearts desire. How blind is the human heart! This condition is not only true of uneducated people. The blindness afflicts all men.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings" Jeremiah 17:9

What this law made by the Supreme Court does in America is to negate an arrangement which God made for all of us. He wants the condition to be fair, or as we say, "He gives us a level playing field." Those inclined to believe and practice the Bible, under God, are free to do so in every area of life, not just in their church buildings or in their homes. Others are left free to ignore the day or the work of the Lord. He does not force men to believe Him nor trust Him. He moves upon their lives. He may even create resentment that they keep thinking their actions may be wrong. Maybe they think of it as "Dad's teachings when I was a boy," or "Mother's instructions when I was young."

It may well be that God is empowering His Word which Dad or Mother taught you when you were young. By this you are moved to think again and not allow your life to be completely destroyed by peer pressure, the craze of the hour, the ways of the world over which Satan is in control:

Satan would say he is making it fair for a man who is pressed by God to trust Him, but he blinds the mind of that man, so he will not trust God (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Everyone should agree that if there is a good God and an evil devil, then perhaps it is better to trust God than Satan. Nobody consciously trusts Satan, that is, intentionally. But our nature is such we are incapable of determining at any given moment whether our thoughts come from Satan or God, except as we have a Bible by which we may judge what is right. And we had better listen to what the Bible is saying because Jesus said, "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day" (John 12:48).

OUR JUDEO-CHRISLIAN HERITAGE
Suffering as it is from the onslaught of Satan, has become less of a preservative of the culture than formerly.
"But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and, worse, deceiving, and being deceived" (2 Timothy 3:13).

The Second Epistle of Paul to Timothy deals at length with the situation of the world in the end of the age, just before the Lord comes. Those conditions are upon us now. You would do well to turn there and study it again, specially chapter 2.

Note that the Word, the Bible, is given as the standard and our safeguard. Note that Timothy was reminded of the real advantage he had in having the kind of mother and grandmother he had (2 Timothy 1:5). How those of us who came from Christian homes ought to thank God daily for such a start and the teachings which prepared our hearts in some measure for the days in which we are now living.

Along with 2 Timothy, we see that 2 Peter and Jude also deal strongly with endtime conditions, warnings, and help for the days in which men evidently are living today. Then there is a dreadful warning in 2 Thessalonians regarding the same time (2 Thessalonians 2:1-7).

Paul reminds the church of some things which he had told them about the end of the age, explaining that they cannot depend on their feelings but need to know what to expect. The Day of Christ will not come except there come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed. Will you who read this believe that day will not come except the falling away occur first and the man of sin be revealed. The antichrist is to be revealed before that day. That day is the day of the Lord's coming (cf. vs. 1).

So do not entertain a false hope that you will escape the time of antichrist on earth in a pretribulation rapture. He cannot come until that which restrains his appearing is removed. We are not told what that is, but we can be sure God knows and has charge of it, so that it cannot happen until He gives the word. and He will give the word in due time (2 Thessalonians 2:7). More, He will send strong delusion to men who received not the love of the Truth."

God Himself sends men strong delusion that they might believe (the) lie, evidently Satan's lie, that antichrist is God. Why would God do such a thing? Evidently it is just to further blind one who willingly refuses the truth of God and will not surrender to him. Repeatedly has God told us in prophecy that these things are coming and His judgment shall handle them justly (cf. Revelation chapters 14-16).

At present the world is dependent upon civil government for the preservation of law and order. Yet, in the midst of so much contention for civil rights, a fear has been created lest we break the law by certain things we do or say. Up until now Christians have had the. privilege to speak - freedom of speech - at most any time and place.

Now, however, our using this guarantee of the First Amendment to the Constitution is jeopardized by the loud clamor for liberties which formerly were prohibited as illegal because immoral It has be-come acceptable to do certain things as long as it is "in the privacy of one's bedroom." Privacy has become more powerful than right.

A remarkable kind of logic interferes with law. It is now assumed that a thing is not wrong as long as it is one's personal choice (right). If one chooses to get drunk it is all right as long as he does not drive. We encourage his getting drunk as long as a designated driver is available. Fornication is acceptable as long as certain protective measures are used. It can now be seen that people, specially young people, are not able to abide by such logic. They feel if there is ever a time when somebody can do these things, then anytime is all right.

When our parents still taught good morals as a proper lifestyle, we had a proper restraint upon immorality. But now, after the introduction of the hippie morality among young people, those parents no longer provide such restraint. The word moral or morals has been made to give over to ethics. It is a change of compromise.

When we had Christian parents we felt that the children would be taught good morals. No longer is this the case. In fact, when the sin nature in a child comes out in his rebellious or selfish actions, parents are supposed to realize that "he does not know any better," so he is not to blame.

Gradually we are eliminating the matter of blame, so that conscience is no longer a restraint. Personal responsibility for one's thoughts and actions is a cardinal virtue. The morals represented by the Ten Commandments are no longer thought to be acceptable.

The standard set by Jesus (Luke 6:31): "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise, " is no longer acceptable. Actually, this has never been a standard for any but God-fearing people. All of a man's children are taught the same morals, so that some restraint is built into their conscience, enabling them to make right decisions. If they come to make different decisions later on, it is because they have had their conscience re-educated.

IS CIVIL RESTRAINT BY LAW ENOUGH?
It never has been. Is a law which prescribes a fifty-five mile speed limit enough to keep all, or even most traffic at a maximum of fifty-five MPH? I think it does not. Nor does a sixty-five mile limit do a good job either. People must have been taught respect for law. This teaching must be not just by word, but by example. It is the sight of the patrolman, or the flashing light, which slows traffic quickly. The posted sign is not enough for those who have little or no respect for law.

Doubtless this explains why there are so many epithets describing policemen in disparaging terms:
pigs, for example. There is no respect for law, for God, for authority. It is there only out of genuine restrictions - an arrest, handcuffs, a squad car to the station.

In this category of putting down policemen comes also the putting down of "the religious right." The latter term is "radical right," though the wording seems not to disparage only Christians. This is a media way of decrying religion.

We know that not all religion is valuable. Satan has made the mark long ago, but he is a liar. See the emphasis on a piece of news which represents murderous intent among those who are against abortions. How deliberately blind must be those who think of a fetus as merely unconscious tissue. refusing to recognize it as human life. This changing of the names of good things to some vile name is a tactic which Satan and those heeding him, have practiced through the years.

This does not say this is a new technique for the end of the age.. for it has been practiced all the way. but we are seeing it more and more as the restraint of God and right is pushed into the background. These may seem small things, but their accumulated impact is large. Do not be blinded as to the "signs of the times" (Matthew 16:3).