CharacterofGod.org News
December 5, 2019
What a wonderful God of love we have! He so much wants us to
understand what He is like and that He wants to be our best friend.
This newsletter reports additions to www.characterofgod.org since the last newsletter. Aside from additions listed herein, I am always making improvements to pages to make this a valuable resource and hub of information about the character of God, the people who are foremost in promoting it and more.
New Articles Added
https://characterofgod.org/him-shall-god-destroy/ – a very good guest article by Troy Edwards explaining the Bible use of idioms and how they affect our understanding of truth and especially of God’s character.
https://characterofgod.org/sacred-names/ – discusses the concept of the need to use sacred names in light of the understanding of “name” being a reference to character.
https://characterofgod.org/key-to-prophecy/ – guest article by Frank Zimmerman – while this article does not go into detail about specific prophecies, it gives a good key to prophecy, to the whole great controversy between Christ and Satan which is the reason prophecies exist – it is all about resolving this controversy.
New Glossary Entries
Here are the two most recent entries for the Character of God and the Gospel Glossary:
https://characterofgod.org/records-of-heaven/ – are the “books of heaven” for legal accounting purposes? For whose benefit are these records and where are they stored? The answers may surprise you.
https://characterofgod.org/sanctuary-definition/ – this glossary page looks at the meaning of “sanctuary” and examines different options of which sanctuary heaven is most concerned about. It will be connected to a coming series of pages on the cleansing of the sanctuary of Daniel 8:14.
There are now 20 words in the glossary with many more to come.
New Contributors Profiles
No new additions. People who have made significant contributions to the character of God message will be considered for addition.
Additions to Resources Page
Audio books:
Acts of Our Gentle God by Jay Schulberg
Videos:
Links to all 17 videos in the Agape series by Adrian Ebens
Translations:
A few of the books listed have had audio versions in a variety of languages added.
Free Books
More books are now available free of charge including my own on Biblical Forgiveness. Amazing to discover that forgiveness is a two -part transaction. It is both given by God unconditionally, freely and for every sin and received by us when we recognize our need and just accept it knowing how very good and forgiving God is.
My Other Newsletter
If of interest, please take a look at my other website https://www.jesus-resurrection.info/ where I especially share information about a different understanding of the timing of Jesus’ resurrection as well as many other items of interest (well over 600 pages) There is also a quarterly newsletter available there highlighting current events that point to a soon Second Coming.
Site Traffic
Site visitors increased by a third in October over the month of September to 3356 unique visitors for the month. Subscribers to the site have increased 24% since the last newsletter. My site will be mentioned in a coming new book which should provide a traffic boost. I plan to look into FaceBook ads to promote this message (if anyone is experienced in this area, I could use some advice.)
Coming
We just had a blanket of snow here in Greenwood BC, Canada and snow is likely to stay now for the next three months. Winter weather means more inside time for study and writing so expect more new material. Especially, I am looking forward to completing a series of pages taking a close look at the cleansing of the sanctuary as mentioned in Daniel 8:14. There is some very exciting material in that subject when we begin to understand what God is really trying to achieve in that cleansing – watch for it. – Ray
Feedback
Please get back to me, Ray Foucher, at rayfoucher@gmail.com with any feedback from this newsletter and please share this information with others.
The difference a correct understanding of God’s character makes:
“I messed up – Dad’s gonna kill me”
vs “I messed up – I need to tell Dad”
******************************************************
I am sharing these thoughts as an addition to the study in the glossary about the word “fear.” Would appreciate any comments and will likely soon add it as a page on my site.
Some Thoughts About Casting out Fear
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:18)
A question to ask about the verse above is: whose love and whose fear is it talking about? Do you have perfect love? Do I have perfect love for anybody? I don’t think so. Clearly, in the verse, the perfect love comes before the casting out of fear. Also, verse 19 “he first loved us” shows what comes first.
The “perfect love” must be God’s love which we should have no problem seeing as perfect. So does God somehow manipulate our brains to shut down the fear circuitry? I don’t believe He does anything like that without our permission.
“Fear hath torment” is translated in many versions more like “fear has to do with punishment” and the context here (see verse 17) is judgment so it could be referring to our fear of judgment being cast out.
Many people fear the judgment because of their guilt and are thus afraid of God, perhaps even unconsciously while professing to love Him. But properly understanding the judgment and the character of God – that He loves us and is doing all He can to save us and that He will not judge us – can change any fear of Him as an exacting judge into genuine love for Him as a loving Father. Thus fear – being afraid of God – is cast out.
But does the casting out of fear go even further? We can learn that we do not need to fear God but isn’t there always danger – something to fear – from man? Consider this verse:
“The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?” (Psa 118:6)
Perhaps a settled conviction that “the LORD is on my side” even has the power to remove fear of what man or anything else could do to us. God does not want us to fear:
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Tim 1:7)
And we have the promise that whatever does happen to us will work out for good in the end:
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8:28)
So, it seems that we have the potential, through Him and a correct knowledge of the infinite love He has for us, of being fearless!