Name: DEAN FITTINGER

Subject: WHY DO I NEED GOD?

Message: WOULD YOU PLEASE ANSWER THIS: WHY DO I (WE) NEED GOD? THE USA & MUCH OF EUROPE IS BECOMING MORE SECULAR. ALSO IN THE OT THE JEWS BECAME INDEPENDANT & AUTONOMOUS- FOR WHICH THEY WHERE JUDGED; BUT THATS WHY THEY & US TODAY DONT UNDERSTAND OUR NEED FOR GOD -SO WHAT IS OUR NEED FOR GOD?

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REMOTE_ADDR: 65.170.177.150
HTTP_REFERER: http://www.tzemach.org/articles/gospel.htm
This is the article he is referencing.

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Dear Dean Fittinger,

Thank you for your correspondence. My apologies for taking a few days to respond but your question is more involved and has required me to block out some time to respond. You showed some knowledge of the scriptures in your email, so I assume you have some knowledge of the Bible. I pray that what I share with you addresses the deeper and more personal meaning of your question.

In the early chapters of Genesis we see the first humans functioning in a communal relationship with God. It seems apparent that they were at peace with this arrangement and that there was no sickness or death, the greater evidence for this shown in their new found emotions [after eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] of nakedness and fear. When being questioned about their new posture [i.e. "Where are you" was not a geographic question but a question of posture with God], God asked Adam, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" [Genesis 3:10]. We might like to think that there would only have been communication between Adam and Eve and God, but now God is asking Adam if he has spoken to anyone else. Clearly, therefore, eating from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil demonstrates an act of sitting down and eating with [communing with, or hearing from] another source. Prior to this Adam and Eve saw good and evil relative to God, and made choices founded in His definition of what was good or evil. Now they see good and evil relative to "themselves" and in the process have opened the door to communication with Satan, the "accuser of the brethren" [Revelation 12:11] who has apparently condemned Adam over his nakedness ['now you've done it, you've committed the unforgivable'] causing him to fear rejection and hide from God. These actions clearly brought about a separation from God and resulted in further and further degeneration, until God invariably stopped mankind's march toward self-destruction by intervening with the flood.

Jesus said, "I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me" [John 14:30]. When I first read that statement as a child it confused me. I though that God is the ruler of this world. I later realized that Jesus was talking about Satan who had stolen the authority to be the 'ruler of this world' when Adam and Eve chose to listen to his [Satan's] voice.

Just a few generations following the flood, God establishes a covenant with Abraham, then Isaac and Jacob for the purpose of establishing a nation of people that He will use as a tool to bring redemption to the earth. By the time we get to Moses [after the Exodus from Egypt] God says, "And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them." Exodus 25:8 Note the desire on God's part to reconcile what was lost.
In Revelation 21:3 it states, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will tabernacle [dwell] among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." Mission accomplished! God's desire is to be with us. He knows that the evil one [Satan] disguises himself to be God, but then actually seeks to destroy us and everything that God has created. When we show a desire to be reunited with Him by living our lives according to His ways, that very act becomes a wall of protection about us, so that the devourer cannot reach us.

Willful obedience brings the blessings of the Lord [even though we sometimes stumble], going another way brings about separation from God, which leads to permanent separation. His love is greater than we can understand since He willingly sacrificed His Son that we might live, and even if you were the only person in the whole world that had erred, He would have made that sacrifice just for you.

"I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your [seed] descendants..." Deuteronomy 30:19

I pray you choose life.

Blessings from the Tzemach Institute for Biblical Studies,

Jim Wingerter
Director of Multimedia Communications