The Cosmic Conflict - Come And Reason

1 The Cosmic ConflictOver God s CharacterWritten by Brad and Dorothee ColeAuthor: Brad and Dorothee ColeEditor: Claire VanderVeldeLayout and Cover Design: Tamara Slocum Cover Illustration: Louis JohnsonPublished by: Lennox PublishingCopyright 2013 Lennox Publishing. All rights reserved. Use of Material: Lennox Publishing grants permission to copy and use this study guide for not-for-profit uses, including downloading the electronic file and printing hard copies, with the following restrictions: No changes to the study guide may be made without written permission from Come and Reason Ministries. Come and Reason Box 1344 Collegedale, TN 37315 HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION , NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.

2 Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture taken from the New King James Version . Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights taken from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. Scriptures and additional materials quoted are from the Good News Bible 1994 published by the Bible Societies/HarperCollins Publishers Ltd UK, Good News Bible American Bible Society 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992.

3 Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible , Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. New Living, NLT, and the New Living Translation logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House is taken from GOD S WORD , 1995 God s Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group. Scripture quoted by permission. Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission. The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ) copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

4 ESV Text Edition: 2011. The ESV text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. Bible Abbreviations: New International Version (NIV), New King James Version (NKJV), Good News Bible (GNB), Contemporary English Version (CEV), New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)GOD S WORD (GW), New American Standard Bible (NASB), New Living Translation (NLT), The Message (MSG), English Standard Version (ESV) ISBN-13 1: In the Ve r y 2: The Poisonous 3: Cosmic Conflict in the Old Testament?..36 WEEK 4: Job and the Cosmic Conflict , Part 5: Job and the Cosmic Conflict , Part 6: Cosmic Conflict in the Life of Jesus.

5 80 WEEK 7: Destroying the Works of the 8: Distortion of 9: Hellfire: Satan s Ongoing Efforts to Malign God s 10: The Wrath of the 11: Revelation and the Cosmic Conflict , Part 12: Revelation and the Cosmic Conflict , Part 13: Revelation and the Cosmic Conflict , Part and Reason Ministries believes that God is love and all life is built to operate in unity and harmony with our Creator. However, a destructive principle has infected and altered God s design for life and is the root to pain, suffering, and ultimately death. We believe that eternal healing is experienced when we are reconciled into unity of love with God, possible through the achievements of Jesus Christ, which leads to an intelligent cooperation with God in practicing His methods and principles in our daily lives.

6 Therefore, Come and Reason Ministries has developed these study guides to refocus our minds upon God His character of love and His design for life, health, and eternal happiness. It is our hope that in utilizing these guides you will experience not only greater intimacy with God, but actual transformation of being such that God s methods of Truth, Love, and Freedom will become your methods, actually applied and lived out today. So, come and Reason through the abundant evidence God has provided of His unending love, supreme trustworthiness, and life-enhancing nature of His the first few moments of the popular movie trilogy The Matrix, viewers are introduced to Neo, a man who believes he s just an ordinary guy, working at an ordinary job, living in an ordinary city.

7 This belief forms the basis for his thoughts and how he relates to the world around him. Over time, however, he comes to realize that there s something more going on something unseen. He can never quite put his finger on what it is until he takes a red pill and discovers that what he once thought constituted reality was only fa ade. That s when his eyes are opened to a markedly different narrative for his existence. Like Neo, we all have the desire to see the reality of things and to put our lives in the right context. For centuries, Christian theology has played and replayed a story that has centered on personal salvation with only two main characters God and humans. We often say to ourselves, We ve sinned; Jesus came to pay the price for our sin; if we accept what Jesus did on our behalf, we can go to heaven, receive eternal life, and avoid eternal punishment.

8 However, this focus on getting in the right standing with God often minimizes the importance of Satan and the demonic forces that gather around him. In the terminology of literature, Satan is typically plugged into the story line as a rather nondescript and non-dimensional background character, having no central role in the traditional view of human/God reality looks something like this: IntroductionGODHUMANSThe Cosmic ConflictOver God s Character2 Our goal during these thirteen lessons is to reexamine the story line about God and the world around us and to recognize that the Bible describes a much more complex universe than we ve traditionally acknowledged. We re living in the vortex of a Cosmic Conflict with not two but three central characters: God, humans, and non-humans (both good and evil).

9 Within this Cosmic Conflict view, the universe looks more like this:Incorporating a Cosmic Conflict as the center focus of our theology is no less transforming than Neo s decision to take the red pill. Cosmic Conflict theology does not turn a blind eye to personal salvation, but it does fundamentally change our understanding of how God deals with sin and what He s doing to bring us safely to our eternal REALITYIn modern times, the notions of Satan and demonic forces are either chuckled at or marginalized to the realm of Ouija boards, black magic, and Halloween. Many simply can t wrap their minds around the concept of an all-powerful God who would allow for an enemy to exist. Comedian Bill Maher once asked the obvious question that seems to represent a flaw in this paradigm that includes a devil: Why doesn t he [God] just obliterate the devil and therefore get rid of evil in the world?

10 He s asking a common question: Is God not strong enough to destroy the ultimate bad guy ? The Bible itself almost seems to highlight Maher s question by assigning titles of great power and influence to our adversary. Jesus calls Satan the prince of this world (John 12:31; 14:30). Paul refers to the devil as the god of this age and the ruler of the kingdom of the air (2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2). Even after the crucifixion, GODHUMANSNON-HUMANS3 John tells us that the whole world is under the control of the evil one (1 John 5:19).We will certainly address Maher s challenge, but for now we can at least say that the Bible describes a highly complex and nuanced universe. Its message, when viewed through the lens of full understanding, is unquestionable.