Same Return Same Frustration

When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the LORD, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of the families, saying, "Let us build with you because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to Him since the time of King Esar-haddon of Assyria, who brought us here."

But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the other heads of the families of Israel replied, "You have no part with us in building a house for our God, since we alone must build it for the LORD, the God of Israel, as Cyrus king of Persia has commanded us."

Then the people of the land set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to build. They hired counselors against them to frustrate their plans throughout the reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.

At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, an accusation was lodged against the people of Judah and Jerusalem. (Ezra 4:1-6 BSB)

The people already living in the land when the Jews returned the first time tried to frustrate their plans. The people already living in the land when the Jews returned the second time also tried to frustrate their plans.

During the first return, the superpower of the day was Persia. For the second return, the superpower is America.

During the first return, the people already living in the land claimed that they worshipped the God of Abraham. During the second return, the people already living in the land also claimed that they worshipped the God of Abraham.

During the first return, the people already living in the land failed to frustrate the Jews and disappeared into the dustbin of history. It will be the same for the people already living in the land today.

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9 NIV)

Leaves Are for Healing in the Kingdom of God

Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing." (Ezekiel 47:12 NIV)

On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (Revelation 22:2b NIV)

In Ezekiel, the river flow from the Temple in Jerusalem. In Revelation, the river flow from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city.

I can understand why we may need healing during the millennium. But why do we need healing when we are living in the new heaven and new earth?

And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:9 ESV)

Jesus The Only Way - 2

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6 NIV, BSB)

The Bible tells me that those who do not believe in Jesus as their saviour will go to hell when they die.

But some objected to this. They said that God is love and He will not do that.

I said that God sends everybody to death. So the same God also sends them to hell.

Those who objected says that death is a natural process. The loving God takes over after death and sends everybody to heaven.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NIV, BSB, CSB)

But from what I read from the Bible, death is not a natural process. Death is the result of sin. Those who sin go to hell after death.

The love of the loving God is manifested not by sending everyone to heaven, but by sending His Son to die for the sin of the world.

And whosoever who believes that He had died for our sin will not be punished but have everlasting life. And those who do not believe is condemned already.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:16-18 KJV)

Christ Resurrected Because He Was Sinless

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 BSB, CSB, NIV)

In the Biblical context of sin as the wages of sin, the resurrection of Christ proved that He is sinless. He died for the sin of the world and was raised because death has no grip on Him, who was sinless.

He was delivered up by God's set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross. But God raised Him from the dead, releasing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep Him in its grip. (Acts: 2:23-24 BSB)

"God overlooked people's ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead." (Act 17:30-31 NLT)

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and asked Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"
Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise belongs to you and your children and to all who are far off - to all whom the Lord our God will call to Himself."
With many other words he testified, and he urged them, "Be saved from this corrupt generation." Those who embraced his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to the believers that day. (Acts 2:37-41 BSB)

An Atheist's Confession of Faith

Only fools say in their hearts, "There is no God." They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good!  (Psalm 14:1, Psalm 53:1 NLT)

All men live by faith, both the just and unjust. It is impossible for men not to have a belief system. It is by faith that they have eternal life or eternal damnation because their belief system is either true or false.

Atheism and secular humanism are belief systems, just like any other religions. Here is an atheist's confession of faith by Richard Charles Lewontin (1929–2021) quoted from this article "Remembering a Biologist’s Remarkable Confession of Faith | Mind Matters".

QUOTE
In 1997, Lewontin published a review of celebrity science commentator Carl Sagan's book The Demon-Haunted World in which he blurted:

"Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door. The eminent Kant scholar Lewis Beck used to say that anyone who could believe in God could believe in anything. To appeal to an omnipotent deity is to allow that at any moment the regularities of nature may be ruptured, that miracles may happen."

Richard Lewontin "Billions and Billions of Demons" at New York Review of Books (January 9, 1997)
UNQUOTE

This is a link to a shorter version of quotation taken from A-Z Quotes | Quotes for All Occasions.

So, any scientific evidence for God would be rejected by atheists because they have "a commitment to materialism ... forced by our a priori adherence to material causes" and the belief that "materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door ... that anyone who could believe in God could believe in anything".

For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts. (Romans 1:19-21 BSB)

Professing to be wise, they became fools, and they changed the glory of the immortal God into a likeness of an image of mortal man and birds and quadrupeds and creeping things. (Romans 1:22-23 BLB)

From Law to Grace

"Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out." Then all the people shall say, "Amen!" (Deuteronomy 27:26 NIV)

For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed. (Galatians 3:10 CSB)

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. (James 2:10 ESV)

But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. (Romans 3:21-22 NLT)

For the law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!) (Romans 4:15 NLT)

I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. (Galatians 2:21 KJV)

What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? (Romans 6:1 BSB)

What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. (Romans 6:15 KJV)

If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. (John 14:15 BSB)

Knowledge of Sin Comes Through the Law

Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break. (Romans 5:13 NLT)

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' will be subject to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be subject to the fire of hell. (Matthew 5:22 BSB)

But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:28 NIV)

The law does not account for every sin.

For example, if a person has a very bad temper and gets angry easily, he does not break any law, unless he is so angry that he kills somebody.

A person who looks at a woman's cleavage (like what some famous person did recently and was caught in a video) has already committed adultery, but he does not break any law.

For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:20 ESV)