Faith. The quality of trusting in God and what He has said. Faith is the currency of heaven, without which it is impossible to please God. If man wishes to do business with God, he must believe that God exists, and, as well, that God rewards those who diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6). Faith operates in the realm of the unseen, the unfelt, the unexperienced (Heb. 11:1). Though Abram was old and his wife was both barren and old, it was through his faith in God's promise of innumerable descendants that he was declared righteous (Gen. 15:1-6; Rom. 4:3, 20-22; Gal. 3:6; James 2:23). Indeed, the righteous shall live by faith (Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38). Hebrews 11 is the Faith Hall of Fame. It is by the grace of God, accessed by faith, that we are saved apart from any meritorious works (Eph. 2:8-9). Yet faith is validated by works (Eph. 2:10; James 2:14-26). In the New Testament, we are required to place our faith in Jesus, the Messiah. In so doing, we  are granted eternal life (John 3:16, 36; 6:40; 11:25). Faith, along with hope and love, is one of the three abiding virtues. Yet the greatest of these is love (1 Cor. 13:13).

Final Revolt. The final rebellion of man against and His Anointed King, Jesus (Rev. 20:7-10). During the Christ's Millennial Kingdom, Satan will be bound in the Abyss for the entire time, prevented from deceiving man (Rev. 20:1-6). After the thousand years have concluded, Satan will be released from his temporary prison, and he will immediately proceed to deceive as many on the planet as he possibly can (Rev. 20:7-8). He will be astonishingly successful. He will deceive the nations from all over the globe, Gog and Magog. He will gather them together to wage war against Jesus Christ, His capital city of Jerusalem, and His entire administration. This Anti-Christ conspiracy will continue to advance, apparently unhindered, into the land of Israel, and will succeed in surrounding the city of Jerusalem. At the last moment, fire will fall from heaven on the conspirators, utterly destroying them (Rev. 20:9). The devil who deceived them will be taken alive and thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the Antichrist and his False Prophet will have been tormented (Rev. 20:10) ever since Christ's Second Coming a thousand years earlier (Rev. 19:11-21). The Final Revolt will demonstrate that, despite living in an almost perfect environment under the rule of the most just, beneficent and righteous King the world has ever known, man, apart from the intervention of God, will choose against His Creator every time. This Revolt also demonstrates that it is utterly impossible for man ever to succeed in revolting against God. God will win every time, and man will always fail. See a more extensive discussion of the Final Revolt.

Forgiveness.  That act whereby an offended party absorbs the cost of a wrong suffered.  In any transaction of wrong perpetrated and offense received, one party or the other must bear the cost of the restoration if amity is to be restored.  In the case of man versus God, if man pays the cost of his transgressions it is literally a pyrrhic victory – he will spend the rest of eternity in the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:11-15).  God in Jesus has taken the initiative to pay the entire cost of mankind’s transgression (1 Pet. 3:18).  That is a tribute to God’s infinite love (John 3:16; Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:9-10).  Tragically, man in his pride and arrogance refuses to concede his own inability to pay his debt of sin.  Most will end up attempting to pay their own debt, but it will take them an eternity, and they will never pay it.

Free Will.  Man’s perceived freedom to choose or act as he wishes.  As far as his perception is concerned, man is free to do as he wishes.  The reality, however, is something else again.  The freest man’s will has ever been was in the Garden of Eden before his transgression of God’s command.  Even there, however, man’s free will was limited by, if nothing else, the law of physics.  Man even then could not walk through a brick wall or teleport himself to a distant planet or go backwards in time.  Even before he sinned, man’s free will was the freedom to act within a limited range of options.  But the advent of sin diminished even that limited freedom.  In Ephesians 2, Paul described man in devastating terms.  1) Man is dead in his trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1); 2) He is influenced by the world (Eph. 2:2); 3) He is energized by Satan (Eph. 2:2); 4) He is corrupted by the lusts of his flesh and mind (Eph. 2:3);  5) He is a child of wrath, meaning he is the target of God’s wrath (Eph. 2:3).  In that condition, man is a slave to sin (Rom. 6:16), hardly capable of choosing to do any good whatever in God’s sight.  Fallen man is free to sin, but not free to serve God.  In his spiritually dead condition, man is not capable of making a move toward God.  Unless God moves on his behalf, man will never make a move toward God.  The Bible speaks little about the free will of man, but God does hold man responsible for his decisions and actions (Gen. 3:9-13; Gen. 3:16-19; Ezek. 18:4; Ezek. 18:20; John 8:24).  Man is repeatedly offered invitations to choose God and choose God’s gracious forgiveness, right up to the last chapter of the Bible (Josh. 24:15; John 1:11-13; John 3:15-16; John 4:10; John 4:14; John 6:35; John 7:37-38; Rom. 10:11; Rom. 10:13; Rev. 22:17).