Renaissance Ministries – The Foundation

The Foundation of the Renaissance Ministries: Jesus Christ as the Embodiment of Truth
by Thomas Lee Abshier, ND
3/24/2025

Renaissance Ministries: Back to the Garden:

As humanity chooses to follow God’s way, the Kingdom of Heaven joy arises in our hearts and manifests in our lives. In the beginning, God and man walked together in the Garden. When we followed our desires and chose the sweet taste of satisfying the flesh and rebellion against God’s way, our eyes were opened to the pleasures of sin.

We had no experience or wisdom to guide us in distinguishing good from evil, and mankind succumbed to the seduction of bodily hunger. We unknowingly served other gods whose food and pleasure were our pain, degradation, and death. Our souls were bound in allegiance to demons as we contracted with the spirits of evil. We traded our life, health, and freedom to fill a desire.

The terms of our contract with evil were death, pain, and bondage for a moment of unGodly pleasure. Sooner or later, the contract required eventual death. As the decay proceeded, our bodies degraded, and we adopted the values of our demonic lords. Our souls and spirits were exiled from the pure and joyous fellowship with the Most High.

The price of sin is death. it is not God who kills and tortures those who sin. Rather, His creation, the structure of life, and the terms of His Law invariably, dependably, and justly administer the consequences for violating His Law. We have free will, and the terms of violating His Law allow the demonic realm to take ownership of and bring death to all who sin.

He created Satan and the demonic realm with a taste/drive/desire/lust for blood, suffering, and bondage. The demons derive as much pleasure and energy from unrighteous death as a man receives from food, air, sex, money, power, and fame. God desires love, peace, joy, life, health, and freedom for man. The demonic tastes and desires are the mirror opposite of God’s character, morals, and values.

God created the demonic realm and populated it with spirits that love lies, murder, infidelity, and theft as much as He loves life and His Law/Will/Way. He created hell, a kingdom that opposes everything He values, giving man a choice of who to love and serve.

He gave demons the ability to speak to the mind/heart of man and stimulate his passions, desire, and love for the unGodly/unlawful/unholy. He gave demons the ability to tempt man into violating His will/way/Law. He gave demons the ability to feel pleasure in the degradation of man’s health, relationships, wealth, happiness, and life. The demonic spirit is motivated to seduce a man into violating God’s way. The demon who succeeds in luring a man into sin is given the soul and life of the man who tastes and eats the fruit of temptation.

God (the Word/the Son/the Creator of all) created the demons to test the character of every man. In the demons, God created another lover, a temptress who serves as a worthy adversary in the battle for man’s affection, love, loyalty, and service. God Gives good gifts in return for loving Him and His Law. The demons give pleasure for a moment and take life, soul, and freedom in payment. In taking a man’s soul and life and degrading his function, the demons fulfill their hunger for death, misery, and bondage. He gave demons the right to own the soul of the man who violates His Way, extract his life, and derive succor from his pain and decay.

God created man innocent but with the tastes/desires and hungers of an animal. The play of life is the drama of man growing his soul, maturing it to either worship and love God and His way or follow the broad path of feeding his animal hunger. In loving God’s Law/Will/Way, we express our love for God, and at least on earth, while we cannot see Him, He is satisfied by the offering of our obedience and perceives it as love.

The universe is a garden, a training ground, a testing field. We have the authority and freedom/autonomy to choose our soul’s character. We choose repeatedly and gradually harden our souls. We turn whims, thrills, and experimentation into character through repeated choices. We can choose Heaven or Hell, God or Satan, flesh/sin/self or Godliness. We can choose how we nourish and grow our flesh, soul, and spiritual character.

God created man with a taste for sin, a hunger for eating too much, too often, and from the plate of others. God created man with a weakness and desire for and susceptibility to the unGodly. The unholy/unGodly appeals to the flesh, ego, and animal nature. Feeding this hunger results in death, disease, poverty, and unhappiness. The naive see only a humorless, controlling, capricious, and unkind God who created a senseless universe to satisfy His desire for sadistic voyeurism.

The Bible, seen in another frame, reveals a loving God who values free will as a primary pillar of society. It illustrates relationships governed by His Law/Will/Way that truly fill man’s heart and satisfy his soul hunger and flesh desires.

God created the universe out of nothing. He is self-existent. His existence is an unfathomable mystery. No human concept can justify, rationalize, or imagine the existence of existence without a precursor or cause. The sequence and method of creating the creation cannot be explained. We must accept existence axiomatically.

I urge consideration of the postulate of God’s existence as the source of the universe in which we live. I propose testing this postulate by comparing the consistency of the Bible with Science and the hypothesis that the purpose of life is to satisfy God’s desire for love.

I postulate that He created the demons as advocates for all values, acts, purposes, and emotions that oppose His way of being. He created the kingdoms of Heaven and hell to allow man to choose his character and lover.

As man violated the terms of His Law, he showed himself loyal to and lover of evil, demons, Satan, and hell. The results of worshipping, servicing, and sacrificing to other gods with our lives and actions are predictably bad, painful, and deadly. The price will eventually be paid even if the debt collection is delayed

The cost of serving the demonic is unavoidable and high. The terms of the demonic contract are unbreakable. They are backed by and integral with God’s Law. The contract with the demonic will be fulfilled. Death follows sin, and the degradation between sin and death is the slow sucking of life from man to energize Satan and empower Satanic miracles (the smiracles). Satan owns the soul and spirit of every man who has ever sinned, even once. It’s the Law and the way God designed and created the universe. 

The murder of Jesus Christ was unjust, unwarranted, and illegal. The demons violated the terms of the Law, which they must obey. They killed a man who was perfect, sinless, without warrant justifying taking His life. The demons tempted spoke to the minds of men susceptible to their voice.

The demons spoke into the heart of the Pharisees, the spiritually blind men who plotted to kill Jesus Christ. These were men who could not prioritize God’s Law rightly. They gave greater importance to a traditional (but wrongly understood) interpretation of God’s Command to keep the Sabbath holy rather than healing the sick by the power of God.

Possibly, these men were threatened by the loss of power if the prophesized Messiah were incarnated. Perhaps they were blinded by tradition and the teaching/interpretations of men. Regardless, Satan used these men who were susceptible to the tempting voice of demons to kill the Messiah to prevent His rule/reign and destruction of their kingdom.

The demons seduced men to crucify Him. Jesus was tortured, beaten, and hung on the cross until He was dead. In so doing, the final piece of the creation was put in place.

As He died, Jesus said, “It is finished.” God, the Father and Son, had engineered the construction of a living system. They created a world where we have a meaningful and free choice between Heaven and Hell; we can choose to love God or Satan and follow the way of one or the other. We can choose the way of demons, feed the flesh like animals, and remain hungry. Or we can choose to moderate our diet of sex, money, and power according to God’s Law/Will/Way and continually use the options of the flesh according to His Way and sustainably, intermittently, and in proper time to satisfy both the heart of God and man. 

Unrighteous and sinful men/pawns of Satan murdered the incarnated Son of God. But death could not lawfully hold Him. The Father raised Him from death. He arose victorious, having never violated divine Law. Jesus Christ never sinned; He never made a contract with the demons to trade His life for pleasure. Nevertheless, the demons tempted men to murder Him. They had no legal warrant. God had not authorized them to take the life of Jesus. Thus, having killed Him, without a contract on His soul justified by sin, He could not be held in death and hell. Thus, He descended and set the captives free.

Jesus Christ’s death was a credit in His account. He paid the debt of death, but he had no debt to pay. That credit can never be used. He has passed from incarnated life to Heaven, and His death remains a credit on His account to pay for His sin. Thus, the credit of His death is available for us to claim. We can use the credit of His death to pay the debt of death we owe. Our sin justifies our debt and its payment by our death.

We can claim that credit when we have made a heartfelt/sincere commitment to living a Godly/perfect/Holy Spirit-led life. Jesus’s life, the perfection of His being, is the standard by which all life is measured. He is the source and pattern of perfection. When we accept Jesus as Lord, we have declared Him our master and only guide for our lives. In accepting Jesus as Lord, we have accepted Jesus as Savior.

The debt to the demons is paid when we accept Jesus as our Lord and accept His death as payment for a contract with Satan. Such a commitment may not be explicitly understood or unarticulated, but God will accept our childlike understanding and commitment to be like Him.

With our committed allegiance to Godliness as patterned by Jesus’s life and spirit and our acceptance of the validity/value of His sacrifice, we have accepted payment of our debt. In so doing, we have freed ourselves from the demonic contract. We are paid in full. The contract we made with Satan and his demons is fulfilled.

We can choose to return to the Garden, and we will if we are diligent in cleansing our souls. We must be reborn in a new spirit. We do so by our commitment and listening to the Holy Spirit speak. As we read the Bible, we are instructed by physical/earth-level words that give access and authorization to the Holy Spirit’s guidance in our life choices. 

As we live in allegiance to God speaking through His Holy Spirit, we grow in Godly character. It is our will, concession, and direction of the flesh to act out His Way on earth that imprints character, teaches others, and embodies the worlds, thoughts, and acts of living in the Kingdom. Through the vehicles of our bodies, minds, and words, we can live according to God’s will and way.

Living according to God’s principles and cultivating Godly character is the central challenge of life. Recognizing the existence of both good and evil brought confusion, but by correctly identifying goodness, God’s way of being, and rejecting the temptation of evil, life is made simple and direct. Life directed by God’s principles will enlist the help of angels and Heavenly hosts to coordinate life events. As the nation/world is sanctified by habitual, legislated, socially taught, and reinforced obedience to His Way, the context of life is cleansed. The destructive impulses, plans, and purposes of the demonic are resisted. As we choose Godliness and resist the demonic temptations, we will find that we are recreating/reenacting/returning to life in the Garden. The Kingdom of God is within, and God desires that man live according to His Law/Will/Way. In doing this, we will manifest the Lord’s prayer and live on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Renaissance Ministries is committed to examining every question asked and resolving philosophical questions to create a seamless fabric of logic within which to place every observation and consideration of life. In Truth, there is no fear. There are no taboo subjects, no questions suppressed, no conspiracy theories unexamined, and no subject too politically incorrect to investigate. The goal is to identify and live the Truth of God’s way. In our wide-ranging discussions, we explore culture, science, and religion. The entire domain of human knowledge is open for consideration.

Some axioms of Renaissance Ministries include:

  • The Bible is God’s revelation to man. God’s Word is inerrant, but man’s interpretation can be flawed.
  • Science and the Bible must be compatible if the Truth of the Bible and Science are known.
  • Human nature properly regulated satisfies the heart of God.
  • Philosophy cannot determine Truth, but Truth can resolve the paradoxes and questions of Philosophy.
  • There is a political system/choice/administration that satisfies the heart/will/way of God.
  • Money/Gold and economy are symbols of service, tokens of commitment to service, and agreed-upon value.
  • Medicine is for healing/correcting/repairing trauma. Man is responsible to God for avoiding the trauma of toxins, injury, infection, genetic injury, and excess and deficiency malnutrition.
  • Every religion has some truth; to that extent, it is good and Godly. God desires that no soul be lost. God is merciful and just. He desired obedience, not sacrifice. Even a cup of water given in His name is a service to Him. There is entry into the presence of the Father, the Almighty God, without the cleansing of sin.

Our mission is to integrate the many streams of human knowledge with Biblical principles. We believe transformation occurs organically, naturally, and inexorably as individuals embrace absolute moral principles and align their lives with the spirit of Biblical wisdom.

This renaissance is intellectual, emotional, and practical. By following the example/spirit/beingness of Jesus Christ in our daily lives and living according to God’s commandments, we can create:

  • Personal peace
  • Community harmony
  • Reasoned faith
  • Purposeful living
  • Meaningful relationships

Join a Zoom meeting, read the website essays, form your own discussion groups, and practice living the principles consistent with the spirit animating the Bible. As you grasp the Renaissance Ministries worldview/paradigm, you may:

  • See life in a new and more holistic way.
  • You may struggle less with existential questions and feel the peace of simply naming good and evil and responding appropriately.
  • You may feel the peace of holding a paradigm that helps you understand your place in the universe and the purpose of life.
  • You can boldly witness your faith to friends, family, and circle of influence.
  • You may be able to relax your search for Truth and accept the small amount of faith necessary to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
  • You may find that accepting a few reasonable axiomatic premises is sufficient to make enough of life understandable to enjoy living simply.
  • You may be able to live and feel peace, knowing that you have done all you can to love God, others, and yourself.
  • Your peace may be a part of the rebirth/the renaissance of a world that lives in peace.

Back to the Garden – Summary

Summary Outline of the Essay


I. Introduction: Humanity’s Journey with God

  • Humanity was created to walk in fellowship with God in the Garden.
  • Sin disrupted this relationship, leading to pain, separation, and decay.
  • God offers redemption and a way back to Him through accepting Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and living according to His Way.

II. The Fall: Humanity’s Contract with Sin

  1. The Choice to Disobey:
    • Adam and Eve’s sin opened the door to knowledge of good and evil.
    • Humanity entered into a spiritual “contract” with sin and death.
  2. Consequences of Sin:
    • Sin leads to fleeting pleasure but results in bondage, suffering, and death.
    • God’s Law defines God’s character, what pleases and what offends Him
    • Humans choose their fate by their choice of actions, habit, and character
    • Desires must be tamed. Following these  inherently
    • Choosing to sin is a de facto contract with Satan, trading pleasure for bondage and death.
    • It is this contract which the death of Jesus Christ paid by His undeserving death.
    • The demonic realm thrives on and is nourished by mankind’s experience of pain, death, and rebellion against God.

III. Free Will and the Purpose of Life

  1. The Gift of Free Will:
    • God created the universe as a training ground for the soul.
    • Life’s trials challenge our character, which is the treasure we lay up in Heaven.
    • We have free will, and we can choose Heaven or Hell, fellowship with God or Satan.
    • Choosing God’s way in our lives satisfied His desire for love.
    • Humanity is given meaningful choices between good and evil, God or Satan.
    • Satan appears as an angel of light. His promises are seductive and pleasant but end in pain, poverty, debility, and death.
  2. God’s Law:
    • Living according to God’s principles leads to fulfillment and joy, eventually.
    • Feeding sinful desires results in captivity and death.

IV. Redemption Through Jesus Christ

  1. The Sacrifice of Jesus:
    • Jesus lived a sinless life and offered Himself as the sacrifice, which can substitute for our death sentence.
    • His unjust crucifixion created a “credit” available to pay our debt of death for our sins.
  2. Freedom from Sin:
    • Accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior frees us from the contract with the demonic and our debt of death for our sins.
    • Redemption involves sincere repentance and commitment to Godly living.

V. Returning to the Garden

  1. Sanctification Process:
    • Humanity is invited to return to fellowship with God through accepting the atonement.
    • The Kingdom of Heaven can be within as we follow God’s principles.
  2. Impact on the World:
    • Obedience to God’s way (making Jesus Christ the Lord of our lives) transforms families, communities, and nations.
    • Resisting sin and cultivating Godly culture restores the world to its intended purpose.

VI. A Call to a New Renaissance

  1. Integrating Faith and Knowledge:
    • A new Renaissance will come on Earth as we integrate Scripture with science, philosophy, and culture.
    • Renaissance Ministries seeks to resolve the questions of a properly lived life by rationalizing the Biblical worldview.
  2. God’s Nature and Purpose:
    • God desires obedience, not sacrifice, and has revealed His will through the Bible.
    • Science, when it discovers the Truth, will illuminate God’s hand in the Creation and confirm the rationality of His Law,

VII. Conclusion: A Life of Purpose and Peace

  1. Choosing God’s Way:
    • Following God’s principles brings freedom, peace, and joy.
    • Redemption transforms individuals from sinners to citizens of His Kingdom.
  2. Restoration of Creation:
    • Through faith and obedience, humanity can participate in restoring the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
    • The journey back to the Garden is a return to fellowship with God.

Back to the Garden

A Journey Back to the Garden: Choosing God’s Way in a World of Temptation
by Thomas Lee Abshier, ND
3/20/2025

From the beginning, humanity was designed to walk in fellowship with God, enjoying His presence and living in harmony with His creation. God and man shared an intimate relationship in the Garden of Eden, a reflection of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. However, the fateful choice to disobey God and seek the fleeting pleasures of sin set mankind on a path of rebellion, pain, and separation. Yet, even in this fallen world, God offers a way back—a return to the Garden through obedience, faith, and the transformative power of Jesus Christ.


The Fall: A Contract with Death

When Adam and Eve chose to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they opened the door to sin and its devastating consequences. Humanity, in its innocence, lacked the wisdom to distinguish between good and evil. In succumbing to the seduction of bodily hunger, mankind unknowingly entered into a contract with the forces of darkness. This contract bound mankind to the dominion of sin, where fleeting moments of pleasure served as the bait for a lifetime of decay, bondage, and eventual death.

The price of sin is not imposed by God in anger or vengeance but is built into the very structure of life. God’s Law is perfect, and its violation inevitably leads to destruction. The demonic realm, created by God as a contrast to His goodness, thrives on this destruction. Demons are empowered by death, pain, and suffering—values that stand in stark opposition to God’s character of love, life, and freedom. In this system, mankind’s choices determine allegiance: to the God of life or to the spirits of death.


The Purpose of Free Will

God’s creation of the demonic realm and the possibility of sin was not an act of cruelty but an act of love and justice. By granting humanity free will, God allowed for a meaningful choice between good and evil, between love for Him and allegiance to the world’s temptations. The universe is, in essence, a training ground for the soul—a place where repeated choices and habits shape a person’s character and eternal destiny.

God’s Law is not arbitrary; rather, it is the path to true fulfillment and joy. Living according to His principles satisfies the deepest longings of the human heart and aligns us with the divine purpose for which we were created. Conversely, feeding the desires of the flesh—unchecked hunger for power, sex, and material gain—leads to emptiness and destruction. The temptations of the demonic realm appeal to humanity’s animal nature, but they can never truly satisfy.


The Redemption: Jesus Christ, the Perfect Sacrifice

The story of humanity’s fall is not the end. God, in His infinite love, provided a way for mankind to be redeemed from the contract with death. This redemption came through Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect, sinless life and offered Himself as the ultimate sacrifice. His unjust crucifixion was the demons’ attempt to destroy the Son of God, but in their act of rebellion, they violated the very Law they sought to enforce. Jesus’ death, therefore, became a credit in the divine economy—a payment for sin that could be applied to all who accept Him as Lord and Savior.

Jesus’ sacrifice broke the power of the demonic contract. By accepting His death as payment for our sins, we are freed from the bondage of sin and death. The gift of freedom is a legal transaction and a reward of a transformation of the heart and soul. When we commit to living a Godly life and aligning ourselves with His Spirit, we are spiritually and morally reborn. The credit of Jesus’ death is available to all, but it requires sincere repentance and a commitment to follow His Way.


Returning to the Garden

Through Christ’s redemptive work, humanity is invited to return to the Garden—not as naïve innocents but as mature souls who have chosen God’s Way over the fleeting pleasures of sin. This return is a process of sanctification, where we grow in Godly character by listening to the Holy Spirit, studying Scripture, and living in obedience to God’s Law.

The Kingdom of Heaven is not just a future hope but a present reality that begins within us. We manifest His Kingdom on earth by aligning our lives with God’s principles. This transformation extends beyond the individual to families, communities, and nations. By resisting the destructive impulses of the demonic and cultivating a culture of obedience to God, we participate in restoring the world to its original purpose.


A Call to a New Renaissance

In this age of confusion and moral relativism, there is a pressing need for a new Renaissance that integrates the wisdom of Scripture with the entirety of human knowledge. Renaissance Ministries explores the intersections of faith, science, philosophy, and culture, uncovering the truths that bring clarity and peace. By examining every question and resolving every paradox, we can build a seamless worldview that honors God and equips humanity to live in accordance with His Way.

The Bible reveals a God of love, justice, and mercy—one who desires obedience, not sacrifice, and longs for humanity to choose life over death. Properly understood science aligns with this revelation, as the laws of nature reflect the character of the Creator. We can cultivate personal peace, community harmony, and a deeper understanding of our place in the universe through reasoned faith and purposeful living.


A Life of Purpose and Peace

Following God’s Way is not just a moral obligation but the path to true peace and fulfillment. When we align our lives with His principles, we find freedom from the bondage of sin and the destructive patterns of the flesh. We experience the joy of living in harmony with God, others, and ourselves.

This journey is not without challenges, but it is one of profound rewards. As we grow in Godly character and live according to His Spirit, we become beacons of light in a dark world. We participate in the ongoing restoration of creation, bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to earth. Through faith, obedience, and the redemptive power of Jesus Christ, we can reclaim the Garden and live as God intended—in fellowship with Him, now and forever.