upgraded May 6, 2008
God is a God of perfect discipline, perfect law and consequently perfect order. 1 Corinthians 14:33 referenced below is an algebraic formula:
1 Corinthians 14:33 (NIV) For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.
God /= Disorder (God does not equal disorder.)
God = Order
God = Peace
God = Law
"Law is order, and good law is good order" - Aristotle 384-322 B. C.
Law = Order
Psalm 119: 163-165 (NIV) I hate and abhor falsehood but I love your law. 164 Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws. 165 Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.
righteous adj [alter. of earlier rightuous, alter. of ME rightwise, rightwos, fr. OE rihtwis, fr. riht, n., right + wis wise] (1535) 1: acting in accord with divine or moral law : free from guilt or sin 2 a: morally right or justifiable <a ~ decision> b: arising from an outraged sense of justice or morality <~ indignation> 3 slang : GENUINE GOOD syn see MORAL - righteously adv - righteousness n - Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
Righteousness is acting in accord with divine or moral law.
Isaiah 32:17 (NIV) The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.
Law = Peace
God created the universe, by imposing Himself on the universe. God gave us His Holy Word, and His Blessed Holy Spirit as Counselor in order to teach us how to function within His perfect order. If a person or society moves away from God, and fails to comply with the instructions contained within His Holy Word, and fails to follow the guidance of His Holy Spirit; then that person or society is confronting God's established order. That person or society is moving out of synchronization with the universe, that person or society is "throwing a monkey wrench" into God's order, that person or society is effecting chaos. However, God's order will overpower the "monkey wrench," because that person or society will never be able to operate smoothly. That person or society will never be able to accomplish much, or anything for very long. That person or society is incompetent. That person or society is out of order.
Chaos is the form that the universe was in prior to God imposing Himself on the universe, and that is the natural form of the universe. Without the order and imposed presence of God, things return to chaos. That is why things migrate naturally to disorder, and why things never migrate naturally to order. That is also why evolution as a theory, is the theory of an idiot.
Godly people have self discipline. They have self control. It is one of the fruits of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Godly people have a self imposed order. If you move away from God, you move away from peace, law and order, towards chaos and disorder. Wicked people do not have self imposed order. Order must be imposed on wicked people by force. That is why Jesus will rule during the One Thousand Year Millennial Reign with an "iron scepter." (Revelation 19:15, Psalm 2:9) There will be wicked people who will survive the Seven Year Tribulation Period. Those wicked people will have order imposed on them by force.
Wicked people hate discipline. Wicked people hate order. Satan and his sinful fallen angels are exactly like sinful fallen man in that they both innately desire to return all of creation to that formlessness that creation was in before God imposed Himself on creation. The wicked desire to return the universe to the chaos that it was in when the earth "was formless and and empty," or "without form and void," and without the presence of God.
Genesis 1:1-2a (NIV) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep,
Genesis 1:1-2a (KJV) In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
Without the presence and imposed order of God, man's spirit and soul is lawless, chaotic, without form, void, and out of order. Man's spirit and soul soon imposes disorder on man's body through lawless living. The lawless want no law. All law is under attack by the lawless. The law of marriage between a man and a woman is under attack. Many of the judges today are lawless, and are destroying the law with their judgments.
Proverbs 17:15 (NIV) Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent--the Lord detests them both.
Job 9:24a (NIV) When a land falls into the hands of the wicked, he blindfolds its judges.
"The judge is condemned when the criminal is absolved." - Publilius Syrus first century B. C.
Many of the edicts of governments, and the edicts of judges today comply exactly with fallen man's desire to return the universe to its natural state of chaos. These laws and judgments are "without form, and void."
Most of the people that are attempting to destroy the law do not realize what they are doing to the law. When people move away from God, they corrupt their wisdom. They lose their ability to think wisely.
Ezekiel 28:17b(NIV) you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor.
Job 12:24 (NIV) He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason; he sends them wandering through a trackless waste.
The Government of the United States of America is removing God, the Word of God, Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and every form of God from all aspects of public and private life as quickly as they can. In a direct correlation, schools have become war zones, and people are becoming terrified by the wickedness, lawlessness, and godlessness that is overwhelming the society.
When all men cry peace there will be no peace because there will be no law and no order. The people will refuse to accept God and God's structured order of law. People have become so wickedly stupid.
Isaiah 57:18-21 (NIV) I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will guide him and restore comfort to him, 19 creating praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel. Peace, peace, to those far and near," says the Lord. "And I will heal them." 20 But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. 21 "There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked."
Jeremiah 6:14 (NIV) They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace.
1 Thessalonians 5:3 (NIV) While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
The antichrist is a man of lawlessness.
"Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it; and this I know, my lords, that where laws end, tyranny begins." - William Pitt, Earl of Chatham 1708-1778
Antichrist = No Law, No Order, No Peace
During the Great Tribulation Period, the influence of God on society will be gone, and consequently the discipline, regimentation, and order of most men individually, and our society as a whole will be gone.
The lawlessness of the antichrist, coupled with the lawlessness of men will create an ineffective and chaotic society, governed by an ineffective and chaotic government. This lawlessness will effect chaos throughout the world. This chaos will allow many Christians to evade the antichrist and death when the antichrist attempts to kill the Christians.