inhuman: lacking qualities of sympathy, pity, warmth
inhumane: lacking humanity, kindness, compassion
humane: having or showing compassion or benevolence, intended to have civilizing or refining effect on people
Inhumanity does not exist, it’s a myth.
With those definitions in mind, lets review Genesis 3. Were Adam and Eve showing “humanity” when they disobeyed God? Were they showing “humanity” when they tried to hide and cover up their mistake? Did they show civilized behavior by disobeying God, not taking responsibility and pointing fingers? Most of us would agree their mistake is what made them human. They could be nothing more than human due to their flaws.
In Genesis 2:16, God told Adam and Eve “if you eat from this tree, you will certainly die.”
In Genesis 3:3, Eve told the serpent what she remembered God saying, “you must not eat fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it or you will die.”
In Genesis 3:4, the serpent [satan] replied to Eve, “you will not certainly die.”
Notice how the serpent used the exact word that God used? This means that the serpent was there and heard what God told the man and the woman. *insert sneaky snake pun* Satan did what he always does and simply tells us the opposite of what God tells us. We continue to follow this formula. We have never stopped. God speaks to us directly. We internalize the message and then we allow ourselves to be convinced, swayed and flat out lied to about the truth. The spiritual realm is always present and active, the enemy sees and hears us. He knows how to slither in and shift us even one degree in the wrong direction. Our human bodies do not always feel the shift taking place, but only realize when our intended destination is no longer in sight. Wait? What? How did I end up Here? We find ourselves doing, saying, believing, and feeling things we never intended or could have imagined. We cant remember just when and where the shift took place, but are left to play catch up in our own lives.
Just three short chapters into humanity, in our human skin, and we promptly mess it all up.
Adam and I failed epically. We couldn’t keep it together on our own. Without the direct presence of God, we blew it. We keep blowing it. Without the direct presence of God we cannot get it together. We see pretty shiny things and we we cannot contain ourselves. We cannot keep ourselves in check by our own flesh.
Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Matthew 26:41
Violence, aggression, murder, sexual immorality, manipulation, social injustice and greed etc are at the forefront of our world. The sound is like the humming of a refrigerator, the pulsating of a ceiling fan. It blankets us like humidity and every so often stings us like a mosquito. We obsess over the itch. The bite becomes forgotten until we get bit again. We gripe about how terrible mosquitoes are. (We’re having 95 degree days here in Midwestern US)
Our flesh is weak: Susceptible to allergic reactions to mosquitoes’ injection of an anticoagulant
Luke 5:12- Jesus heals a man with leprosy
Our flesh is weak: “The elaborate schemes to quash that craving that’s gnawing…just gnawing and gnawing on the inside of your skull like an unreachable itch.” – Is Serial Killing an Addiction?
Genesis 4:8- Cain kills his brother Abel
Our flesh is weak: “When I personally got to the ‘acting out phase,’ I started fantasizing about what it would be like to actually rape a woman.” -The Stages of Pornography Addiction
Judges 19:22-28- Gang rape resulting in death
Our flesh is weak: “3. Dehumanization: One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members are equated with animals, vermin, insects, or diseases…..7. Extermination: It is ‘extermination’ to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human.” – The 8 Stages of Genocide
Exodus 1:15- Pharaoh orders midwives to kill male infants upon birth
Our flesh is weak: “There’s something about me that is happier when accompanied by a small boy.”
Joel 3:3- Child prostitution
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God even had to command us to follow 10 Commandments because we don’t know how to act.
- You shall have no other gods before Me.
- You shall not make idols.
- You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
- Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
- Honor your father and your mother.
- You shall not murder.
- You shall not commit adultery.
- You shall not steal.
- You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
- You shall not covet.
We have an ugly past. We have many people prior to us that perpetuated our human fumbling here on earth. World leaders, celebrities, our own mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters and friends are guilty of the dirtiest human stains. I myself am responsible for awful, sick twisted behaviors, thoughts and feelings.
As we move forward as humans, we continue to dwell deeper into our twisted wicked desires. God’s word says, People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God- 2 Timothy 3:2-4
“Warnings Against Denying the Son
18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.[a] 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
24 As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us—eternal life.
26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.
God’s Children and Sin
28 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.
29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
3 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,[b] we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.” – 1 John 2:18-3:10
This hefty section is so important! We are being warned about being led astray! The devil has been sinning from the beginning, all we have known is sin. All we have known is what it feels like without God. We know the disconnection too well and struggle to know the One True Connection. The disconnect from our Creator causes hearts and flesh to yearn for more. In our human bodies we can only try to alleviate the disconnect through other things and through other people.
If God/Jesus/The Holy Spirit/Heaven was our sun in the solar system, it makes sense that the closer we are we willl have more light and warmth.
The further we are from the sun, the colder and darker we get.
The further we are from the Son, the Colder and Darker our Hearts are.
With dark and cold hearts comes all strife.
Darkness is not the opposite of light. Darkness is the absence of light. Sin is the absence of God. Evil is the absence of God. Satan and God are not at war. Satan has been exiled to earth; he can only work through the open places of our hearts that are not filled with God.
Hate/Darkness/Satan{__←HUMANITY→__}God/Love/Light
We choose how far we go in either direction. Jesus can reach us on any level of the spectrum. Sin can devour us on any level of the spectrum. Your level of sin is a heart issue. Your level of positive change is dependent on allowing God to change your heart.
*face the Son and you’ll never see the shadows*
My favorite book of the bible is Romans. You’ll find so much depth and grit there. These three pieces tell the tale of the status of our human hearts.
{____←HUMANITY→____}
As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Romans 3:10-18
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace. Romans 6:11-14
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[a] a slave to the law of sin. Romans 7:21-25
Related Reading/Sources:
biblegateway.com
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/is-serial-killing-an-addiction-1.1673542#.VbE9afn0_n0
http://www.genocidewatch.org/genocide/8stagesofgenocide.html
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/attachment-disorder-in-adults.html
Confessions of a Recovering Feminist 