Apologetics! Reality not an Illusion!

There are many people who say that God is all, and all is God, which is simply false. There are others who believe that the Good God is all, and death, sin, sickness and disease are just illusions, because death, sin and sickness are 'bad'.

In this post I would like to examine with the Holy Scriptures whether the Bible teaches that the Good God is all, and whether death, sin, sickness and disease are just illusions. I will test this doctrine with the holy scriptures, and see whether it stands or falls.

I will use 'love, truth, and life' to make my argument, and then conclude. In the Bible, the Bible teaches that God is love (1Jn. 4:8), but does the Bible teach that 'love is God?' No. The Bible teaches that God is love—God is the source of true Love, but the Bible never says that 'love' is God, otherwise, you would make my love for God and for my brothers in the Lord, 'actually God'—the reason I love God and my brothers the way I do is because I have a relationship with the One who is the only source of true love, who is God; without God I could not love God nor my brothers in Christ like I do. This love comes from God through the Lord Jesus Christ. The three persons of the Triune God have loved each other perfectly from all eternity.

Next, The Bible teaches that God is truth. The Bible teaches that God is truth (John 14:6, Psalm 117:2 and Duet. 32:4), but again does that mean that 'Truth is God?'—No. The Bible never teaches that 'Truth is God', but God is truth. If you say that 'Truth is God', you would make the Bible, 'God'—the Bible is the 'Word of God' (2Tim. 3:16 and Eph. 6), and God and His Word are inseparable, but the Bible is not 'God.' God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Three Persons, The One true God, the Bible is the God-breathed Word of God that comes from God (2Tim. 3:16), and He used human pen men to write the Words down. God is the source of His Word (the Holy Scriptures). I receive truth from God through His Word by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Lastly, There is no argument that God is Life—the Bible teaches that God is Life, He gives everlasting life in Christ (Rom. 6:23, John 17:3 and 1Jn. 5:20), but does that mean that 'Life is God?' No. The Bible never teaches that 'Life is God', but God is Life. If you were to say that 'Life is God' you make all the life in creation, 'actually God', and even the believer's eternal life, 'actually God'. The Bible again teaches that God is the source of Life,  the Creator of heaven and earth, and the source of eternal Life through the Lord Jesus Christ, by His death, burial and resurrection. Eternal Life comes from the Lord Jesus Christ.

So we can see that God is Love, Truth and Life, but Love, Truth and Life is not God, which clearly shows that the Good God is not All.

Now let me illustrate this further. There is a difference between the Creator (God) and the creation—The Creator and the creation are not the same. In the Book of Genesis, the Bible says 'God created the heavens and the earth' Gen. 1:1. They are not one and the same. God created creation (came into existence) by God, the God who has been in existence always. Creation came from God, not God came from creation. Even though man is a unique creation of God, he was only made in His image (Gen. 1:26), but not as God.

Now, what happened to man? Man was separated from God (man's relationship with God was broken) because man sinned against God. The Bible teaches this to be a reality. Some will teach you that sin is just an illusion because the Good God is All, but the Bible tells us the reality what man's sin in the Garden of Eden did, and put the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross to pay for the sins of them who put their faith in Him.

Adam's sin was not an illusion, but very real. Adam's sin infected the whole of creation. What entered into the world because of Adam's sin? Death, for the Bible says, For the wages of sin is death.  The Bible says in Romans 3:23, For all sinned, and fall short of the glory of God. Man is a sinner, but God is not a sinner, but holy and pure—He is the Rock, his work is perfect. For all his ways are just: a God of faithfulness, and without evil, just and upright is He. Deut. 32:4.

We see the reality of sin, which caused man's separation from God—sin is very real, and not an illusion, and because sin (which is evil and wicked) is a reality, we have the reality of death. The Lord God is Good, and because He is Good, He is not all. The Lord God is Good, but man is sinful and not good, and needs the perfect Saviour for salvation (that is the reality the Bible plainly says.)

In Isaiah 53:5, we can see how real sin is—the Bible says, But he was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with his wounds we ourselves are healed. In v.7, He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, but He did not open His mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a ewe before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. In v.8, He was taken from prison and from justice; and who shall consider His generation? for He was cut off out of the land of the living; from the transgressions of My people, the stroke was to Him. This is a detailed account of the sufferings the Lord Jesus went through when He went to the cross and died for the sins of the world (John 3:16). 

Another scripture about the Lord's perfect sacrifice—In 1Corinthians 15:3-5, For I delivered to you first place what I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised the third day, according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 

In Romans 5:12, the Bible says, Because of this, even as sin entered the world through one man, death through sin, so also death passed to all men, inasmuch as all sinned. All are born sinners—we inherit the sinful nature which has been passed down from Adam. This is a reality. The Bible teaches the reality of sin and the consequences of our sin, For the wages of sin is death.

Let us conclude. 

• First of all, the reality of sin is very real, which exposes the lie that God is all. The Bible teaches that God is Good, but does not teach that God is all. The Bible teaches that the God of the Bible is God and nothing else is God.

• Secondly, what does this heretical teaching about God do? They make God impersonal. They take away the Love of God shown on the cross at Calvary; The Father sent His own dear Son to suffer, shed His blood, and die upon the cross to pay for the sin debt in full for them who put their faith in Him for salvation.

Those who believe that the Good God is all, and death, sin, sickness and disease are just illusions, because death, sin, and sickness are 'bad', take away the love, grace and mercy of God shown on the cross toward sinners when He gave His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins if they repent and trust in Him. They take away the whole character of God.

When examined with scripture, this doctrine that God is all, and sin, death, sickness, and disease are an illusion simply falls, and is exposed for what it really is, heresy! Death, sickness, and disease are a reality, caused by the reality of man's sin against God, and whosoever does not repent and put their faith in the Lord Jesus for salvation, will spend eternity in a real place called the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:15 and Rev. 21:8).

*LITV Bible used for scripture verses

The False Doctrine of Modalism

There are so called Bible teachers called modalists who attack the doctrine of the Trinity (One God, but three persons), when they teach their false doctrine.

When a person rejects the Trinity, naturally they will present a false gospel which says the Father did not send His Beloved Son, whom He has had an eternal relationship with, to enter into His own creation and take on humanity, to lay down His life for sinners.

They do not believe that God is One God, three Persons, but they believe God is One God, one person, who takes on three modes or manifestations, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They believe God manifested Himself as the Father, then God manifested Himself as the Son, and presently, God is manifesting Himself as the Holy Spirit. 

First of all, the Bible clearly teaches that the Father and the Son had an eternal relationship before the world was created. John 17:4 LITV, And now Father, glorify Me with Yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the existence of the world. Notice Jesus prayed "And now Father, glorify Me with Yourself, with the glory which I had with you". The Son is communicating with another person, the Father, and He expresses their eternal relationship. It is not as some suggest, the human nature praying to the divine nature, because the human nature had a beginning, but His divine nature did not have a beginning, and we see here that the Son is praying to another who had no beginning like Himself, which is the Father, sharing the glory together before the world ever was. 

Secondly,  in John 14:16 LITV, the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, And I will petition the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may remain with you forever. Notice the word 'another'. The word in the Greek in the context it is written means, 'Another of the same kind',  not the same person, but of the same kind, meaning the One true God. Jesus says in John 14:26 LITV, Jesus says, "but the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things and shall remind you of all things that I said to you."  Notice all three person are in verse 26, the Father, and the Son (in My name), and the Holy Spirit, and they are expressed clearly as three distinct persons. 

Thirdly, there is only One God. The Bible says in Isaiah 46:9 LITV, Remember former things from forever, for I am God, and no one else is God, even none like me. Isaiah 44:6 LITV, So says Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts: I am the First and I am the last; and there is no God except Me. And in Revelation 1:17-18, Jesus calls Himself, The First and the Last which is a title for God alone, He says, "And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet, as dead. And He put His right hand on me, saying to me, Do not fear. I am the First and the Last, and the Living One; and I became dead; and behold, I am living forever and ever." The Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three distinct Persons, but They are the One true and living God, Yahweh.

Just looking at these fews verses, this truth can be seen, but there are many other verses in the Bible, which testify to this very truth about God.

The Father has declared in His Word that only through the Son, can you come to the Father. The modalists teach that the Father did not send His Beloved eternal Son, but the one person of God who was the Father in the Old Testament, then became the Son. This is a false gospel. They reject the testimony of the Father, and believe not in the unique Son of God.

The Bible says in 1John 5:10 to 13 LITV, The One believing in the Son of God has the witness in himself. The one not believing God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness which God has witnessed concerning His Son. And this is the witness: that God gave us everlasting life, and this life is in His Son. The one having the Son has life. The one not having the Son of God does not have life. I wrote these things to you, the ones believing in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have everlasting life, and that you may believe in the name of the Son of God.

This makes it very clear that God gives everlasting life in His Son, and not in a person who was first the Father, and then became the Son, because this is not the Son declared in scripture. You have to have the Son recorded in scripture to have life. The Bible says, The one having the Son has life. The one not having the Son of God does not have life.

The Bible says the one denying the Father and the Son (notice two persons) this is the antichrist. The Bible says in 1John 2:22-25 LITV says, Who is the liar, except the one denying, saying that Jesus is not the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one denying the Father and the Son. Everyone denying the Son does not have the Father. The one confessing the Son also has the Father. Then what you heard from the beginning, let it abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you will abide both in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise which He promised us: everlasting life.

Notice the Bible says, both in the Son and in the Father, which speaks of two persons, not one person, not two modes or manifestations, but two persons. Modalists who reject the Triune God, deny the Son found in scripture, and the Bible says, "Everyone denying the Son does not have the Father." Someone can only know the Father through the Son, the Son who is revealed in scripture, the reason it is important you have the right Jesus,  because it is only through Him, you can have the Father also. There are many false Jesus' out there, and believing in any of them will led a person to hell, there is only one true Jesus, the Jesus found and taught in the Bible, and believing in Him will give you an eternal home with Him in heaven by the grace of God. Make sure you have the right Jesus.

Brothers and sisters in the Lord, If you ever come across a person who claims to be a Christian minister, and rejects the Triune God revealed in scripture (Three persons, but one God), and teaches God is one person, they are a false teacher teaching people to reject the Triune God revealed in scripture, and to believe in a lie. 

The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ

Salvation is of the Lord