For Everything… A Season… Why Not?!

TUES., DEC. 23, 1997, 7:02 AM
FARM, STUDY

The question of what to have as a theme for your Forum next April has been a difficult one to answer. Themes from your past courses seem to have been… well, exhausted. You have been considering Death… in the Bible, but you weren’t sure how that could be researched. Then you must have listened to Me, for you considered, A Time to be Born and a Time to Die… and then the 13 other complements (rather than opposites). You can even let that be the title: A Time to be Born and a Time to Die… and some Other Spiritual Complements (or, maybe Scriptural would be better).

Years ago I gave you a number of Teachings on these fairly famous utterances by The Preacher, and then We cranked out a Ruminations on that unique piece of Scripture. This should give you plenty of material for 3 sessions… you’ll just have to organize it in some way.

One of the oft-repeated proclamations of My conservative brethren is that God, through the Bible, sets firm, clear standards. There is Right and there is Wrong. There are Ten Commandments, written in stone, several of which commence, “Thou shalt not…” But then (yes, partly in the spirit of fun) I worked it so that Ecclesiastes would be included in Holy Writ, with its message of alternative “goods”.

You see, the Commandments represent one Truth: that this is a world of good and evil, of Me and the devil, fighting for the soul of each of you humans. You each are children of Mine, as Almighty God, the Creator, but also you are sinners… and many of you will not overcome that innate tendency to sin, so after your bodily death, you will spend eternity in quite an uncomfortable hell.

Keep these Commandments, every one, and you may be with Me, in Heaven, when your perfect life is over. Or, fully accept My sacrifice, as Jesus, and let this be the propitiation for your sins… a “free pass” into heaven (the ultimate in “knowing the Right Person!”)

Another Truth is offered in these “Time to’s”: life is only rarely Either/or; it mostly is Both/And. There is day, and then night. Each has a purpose, and each is necessary because the planet is round rather than flat and moving rather than still. And there also is dawn and dusk, seasons of transition. You are now in the season of winter, coming out of a beautiful Fall season. And yet in the Southern Hemisphere it is early summer.

As you develop this Forum (and you certainly have plenty of time, even with your slowness) you can focus on this first complement: a Time to be Born and a Time to Die. Is this predetermined by Me, as the Triune God, or is this Time something that can be manipulated… shifted… changed… prolonged? Do I approve of the various ways (and still developing) your scientific culture uses to prolong life or postpone death? Are all pregnancies (even 7 at once) caused and blessed by Me? Is it a sin to take your own life, out of the sincere feeling that it is “time” to die… for the benefit of others? When I, as Jesus, was crucified, was it truly My Time to Die?

When an airliner goes down and 250 people are killed was it “the time to die” for each? Should that be accepted or should there be much time and money spent on determining the cause so that this could not happen again?