Grace, the Forbidden Gospel - Online Christian Library

Law Grace
Job
This often misquoted, misunderstood book in the Bible has been the cause of much blame to fall on God for
causing sickness, poverty, despair, loss of loved ones and suffering. In fact it’s almost strange if any
Christian has not at some point in their life blamed God for something bad that’s happened to them, thinking:
“If He allowed it to happen to Job, He’ll allow it to happen to me”.
According to theologians, the book of Job is probably the oldest book in the Bible, written even before Moses
recorded Genesis to Deuteronomy. Job was an upright and God fearing man:
There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright,
and one who feared God and shunned evil. (Job 1:1 NKJV)
Since the law and 10 Commandments had not yet been introduced, there was no standard of holiness to try
and measure up to and Job had free and open access to God’s presence. Then one day the following
happened:
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan
also came among them. And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan
answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on
it”. (Job 1:6-7 NKJV)
How did Satan ever manage to get to heaven and appear before God? This is a topic we will look at in depth
in our next two chapters.
The point is, even if Satan could at one point manage to stand in heaven before God, he can’t do it any
longer. Shortly after Jesus had sent out the seventy disciples, they came back to Him, rejoicing that even
demons were subject to His name:
Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”
And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven. (Luk 10:17-18 NKJV)
Satan was cast out from heaven (again) on that day! He no longer had any right to stand before God and
accuse mankind of anything! Therefore we do not have to fear that Satan can report any bad conduct to God
anymore. It has all been forgiven at the cross.
Job and His Friends Accuse God
During the period that Satan tried to destroy Job, things were made even worse by Job’s friends who came
and reasoned with him, trying to share their “wisdom”. We saw in Job 1:1 that Job was a righteous man, but
now Eliphaz accused him of being sinful and that his suffering was because of his iniquity:
“Remember now, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright ever cut off? Even as
I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. (Job 4:7-8 NKJV)
Job himself also accused God of quite a few atrocious things:
God throws me into a pit with filth, and even my clothes are ashamed of me. If God were human, I
could answer him; we could go to court to decide our quarrel. But there is no one to step between us -
no one to judge both God and me. Stop punishing me, God! Keep your terrors away! (Job 9:31-34
GNB)
Job claimed that God was responsible for killing him, yet he maintained he would still trust God. This sounds
quite a bit like those who accuse God for killing their children or loved ones, but say they still “trust” Him.
Come on! If God were responsible for doing such things, why would people even still want to be Christians?
How can we trust someone that murders our loved ones?
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