Monday, December 31, 2018

Battle of the Wills


     The human will is a faculty of the mind which makes choices; the ones perceived as best for the individual. The will is the defender of personal desires. If the will favors another person, even that is in the best interests of the individual. For instance, a good parent wants what's best for the child. They will that their children succeed. That strong desire is great for the children, and as great for the parent. The child's success reduces the parent's stress. Of course, because they love their children is the motivation for their thinking.
    Peter the Great desired that his son be successful. He promoted Nikolai for the Romanov throne. Nikolai didn't want to be czar, but Peter's will was that he train for and have that position. Nikolai fled Russia and was later seized in Europe. Eventually, because of Nikolai’s strong will, Peter had him killed. Therein was a match of wills - two very strong wills. Peter loved Nikolai so much that he desired Nikolai be as him. In the failed effort to make Nikolai the czar, Peter perceived that he had no choice but to kill is heir. Peter loved Nikolai so much that he desired to have a mini-Peter. Nikolai had a stronger will than Peter! Who then was greatest? Peter had more power, but Nikolai had a stronger will, but his will caused his death!
     The "will" is the faculty of human beings and even animals. We all have heard the phrase, stubborn as a mule. Animals also make decisions. Much of what they do is instinctual, but they do as they want to do as well. Any pet owner can easily detect animals doing their will by refusing to obey commands or not. All their behavior is not operant conditioning. Wild animals do more their own will while domesticated animals have learned to do their master's will. Those which are domesticated know and understand to whom they owe allegiance. Good masters feed, shelter, and protect their animals. In return, they become friends to people and do their master's will.
     Think on canine behavior. Most are obedient to their masters because their masters show them love, makes rewards, and punishes for bad behavior. When wild horses are tamed, for instance, they yield their will to their masters and become domesticated or docile. They are especially obedient to the one who tamed them. They accept the will of their tamer!
     Well, humans have a faculty of the will as well. Exercising the will as one pleases is called "free will". Wild animals are beasts. They do what they will. Most of the time, their desire is to protect themselves. If it means hurting someone or something else, they will do so to survive. Vicious animals are not usually vicious because they are mean-spirited but are so for survival. Men, who are beasts, and women too, are mean-spirited for survival as well - to protect their own space, desires, and well being. Nearly everything sane people do is to elevate themselves as they place their desires over the desires of anyone else. Mankind, as does the animals, enjoy freedom until they experience the safety and nourishment of natural or imposed law. Wild beasts have no rules. They do what is instinctual as well as what they desire to do. 
     Mankind has the same type of faculty. Our inborn nature is to do what is right in our own eyes (Jud 17:6). That is free will, and is called libertarianism now:
I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts. (Ecc 3:18-19)
     Solomon said that, but what did David, his father also say? "Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish" (Psalm 49:20). As well said is that the prideful who don't understand meekness, are as the beasts. Wild human beings must be domesticated. Their beastly spirit must be tamed. Most of us are like the wild mavericks which must be rode hard to understand that what seems good for us can be catastrophic. Tamed horses are nourished and protected when corralled, but endangered in the wild. Domestication is good for them in spite of their desire to be free! Most horses will return to an open corral knowing that nourishment is therein!
     Christians are much like tamed horses. We have relinquished our will, and accepted God's will. Many of us our somewhat tame, but ironically our own will is hardened. Many people who have grown up in the safety and obedience of the church still have a wild and rebellious spirit. Given the opportunity and some liberty, they will stray. Their will is stronger than God's will. Jesus told Christians how to pray:
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. (Mat 6:9-10)
     God... thy will be done! You see, those who have been churched may not have been tamed. God doesn't want His children to be domesticated - the morality of the world - but sanctified - set apart from the world and doing God's will.
     Sanctification is spiritual domestication. The beast within is tamed by the Master. Our will becomes His will. Sure, when the gate is left open, Satan can harm us, so the wisest thing to do is to keep safe.
     Job, for instance, lived in safety. Satan could not harm him. He could, however, as long as he was safe, do his own will. Let's examine that scenario:

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. (Job 1:6-12)
    Because he was born wild, at one time Job was a beast. He had the nature of Adam after the original sin. At some point in his life Job was domesticated. His will was to do God's will. Because Satan lost his son Job, he wanted him back. It was Satan's will that Job do his will. When people sin, they think they are doing their own will - as gods (Gen 3:5) but it is really Satan's will they are doing.
     God has his standards for doing His will - the Law of God, and Satan a lack of standards - the law of sin. His standards are lawlessness, or total liberty from regulation. (1 Tim 1:9).
     Satan's laws are perceived as easy because they merely are not doing God's will, and it is for pleasure. Hence, sinners' own wills are obedience to the law of sin. Any "good" which they do of their own volition, without the notion of pleasing God, is as filthy rags to God (Isa 64:6). They are merely doing their will, and seem to make the do-gooders the gods!
     Well, Job had been brought into servitude. It was voluntary; he exercised his free will. God persuaded Job that he was more safe serving Him than serving Satan. God also showed Job that as long as he lived as a beast, under his own protection, he was in danger. When Job came to realize that God was his safety, and that God loved him, he finally was at liberty to make a wise decision without the deception of Satan and his demons. Job lived within a hedge of safety. His safe hedge wasn't like the hedge of the Garden completely, but cherubim were still guarding him. Satan couldn't get to him to make him die because of that hedge, but he could use strong persuasion.
     Satan's method of persuasion is the destruction of all that a person holds dear. He attempted to destroy Job by making him woe to the idea that he was living under God's protection. Like the Israelites at the time of Moses, while in the wilderness, they desired to be back in the perceived safety of Egypt. There, they had been slaves to Pharaoh but were protected. They preferred bondage to freedom within bounds.
    Protected by the hedge, Job could do his will. Since his will was in harmony with God's, Job was protected. Satan could not harm him  directly. Job has since been saved. Never again can Satan destroy him. To die was to gain! (Phil 1:21) because no longer is Job safe but saved!

     The Lord was there that day with Job and Satan. He spoke audibly. He was the Word who Job heard - pre-incarnate Jesus. Job's trust was in Jesus, and it was Jesus who kept him safe. It was Jesus who spiritually domesticated Job. He wanted to please his Master because his Master loved him so (John 3:16).
     Job, although tamed, retained his will. That will is liberty in Christ. (Gal 2:4). Although tamed, animals within their boundary of safety enjoy much freedom. They are free to come or go, but most entirely tame animals desire to be with their master. Their will is in rapport to God's will. They desire the same thing - inevitably that none should perish! Christians are free to wrong their neighbors but because they have a new will, their desire is to live amicably with God's other people, sinful or not!
     I can shoot those who are still beasts and either want to undermine or stalk me. As a new creature, I am no longer the beast that they are. I can freely shoot to kill (a metaphor) but rather seek to spiritually domesticate them - creating new creatures from the flesh of the beasts!
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Cor 5:17)
     New creatures come about by diminishing one's own will as God's will is elevated. That is relinquishing our desires to God's. Jesus said, to not be in wonderment, but you must be born again! (John 3:7).  That moment is referred by theologians as "regeneration". I again prefer "re-genesis" as it is back to the original when Adam was created tame!
    If Peter the Great, in this commentary, represents God, we don't want to be Nikolia. Unlike Peter, though, God will never force royalty on his children. We are to have our Father's will, and voluntarily exercising our will, do as God pleases. We submit our will to God. That meekness makes humble Christians heirs to the throne; indeed, someday we will inherit the earth. Not the old earth but the new earth with New Jerusalem as its capitol. Until then, we serve our King as royal priests (1 Per 2:9). We are merely "domestics" until we become nobility in the New Earth.

Sunday, December 30, 2018

Wrestling With God

     I wrestled with God and God won! He won because he let me win. Although enlightenment is from God, it takes true grit to be enlightened enough to submit to God. People can believe in and even trust God but the most difficult part of being born again is serving God. Serving is hard work! A decision needs to be made: I trust God but do I trust Him enough to do His will? That decision-making process is mentioned in scripture:
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. (Phil 2:11-13)
     As anyone who is a Christian knows, regeneration, or born again, is hard work. Just as the unborn baby fights for life as he or she struggles down the birth canal, once Christians get to the point of spiritual crowning, it becomes harder and harder just as  the pelvis and the uterine muscles try to prevent  childbirth. In natural birth their are contractions as the muscles both aid and prevent delivery. Spiritual rebirthing is much the same way. Demons impede delivery but God relaxes the spiritual muscles - maybe the conscience, until the new born spiritual babe is a babe in Christ.
     Natural birth is wrestling with oneself. It is the mother who endures the labor. She works out the delivery of her child. It is hard work, and guess what; delivery labor is a penalty for sin! "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children" (Gen 3:16). To be honest, Eve did little to work out her salvation. Because of naivete, God did all the work, and whatever contribution Eve made was an effort in futility. (God covering their sins with coats of skins.)
    Because of the penalty of sin, henceforth mankind has needed to work out his own salvation. It isn't physical work, but it is indeed wrestling with God! The spirit wants God to win but the flesh cheers on Satan (Mat 26:41). When converts are converted, for most it's not simple, unless it is done in the manner of a little child (Mat 18:3).  (Conversion is "born again" as is regeneration.) Because conversion requires a change in attitude and lifestyle, which old style sinners want to maintain, a spiritual battle ensues. There are two "Mahanaims" - God's Host (His angels) and mankind (Jacob's tribe) (Gen 32:2).
     With conversion, there exists two camps as well: heavenly hosts and demons:
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephes 6:12).
     Conversion is the Mahanaims of potential Christians.  That is the Holy Ground on which the spiritual battle is fought - a battle for who gets our soul. As our spirit is willing to serve God, within us (original sin) is a desire to do as we please. Our flesh has a problem with submission, and the Serpent's emissaries keep sending the message: Eat of the pleasurable fruit; you won't surely die! Who hasn't thought, I'll live for the pleasure now and repent later? You believe but will not submit. Your flesh wrestles with God and your soul with demons.
     Now let's look at some symbolism because there, indeed, is nothing new under the sun:
And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. (Gen 32:24-30)
    In one corner of the ring we have Jacob wrestling for mankind, and in the other, God wrestling for Himself. Jacob is wrestling with God, and saw Him face to face. How could that be? If anyone looks God in the face they would die, let alone wrestle with Him (Exod 33:12–18)? But Jacob did that and lived! How could that be? Jacob wrestled with Jesus - the very "face" of God. When anyone looks at Jesus they are seeing God. Jesus told Philip, " He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9).
     One purpose for God manifesting Himself is to show His "face". Anytime God showed Himself, the patriarchs were seeing Jesus - the very face of God. Jacob was wrestling with Jesus who was there in the beginning (John 1-2, 14). God, being Almighty, appeared to mankind in many different forms. God appeared to Jacob in the form of a man, a temporary-type of flesh, perhaps glorified, and much different than the flesh of Jacob or even the baby Jesus's!
     Esau, Jacobs brother, who he feared was about to meet in battle, was on the way. They were to have their "Mahanaim" as well. Esau is symbolic of those principalities Christians know to fear. It seems the battle was whether Esau would be Jacob's Lord or would Jacob be God's servant. I believe Jesus wrestled with Jacob to decide the outcome. By grace, Jesus wrestled with Jacob but Jacob won! Why is that? When people wrestle with God, and trust that it is God, they are safe, Christians always are the winners! It's by grace Christians are rewarded, and Jacob was rewarded as well.
     Before the wrestling match, God was the God of Abraham and Isaac (Gen 32:9). After the wrestling match, Jesus was the God of Jacob as well. Jacob was changed just as Abraham and Isaac before him had changed. First off, Jacob's name was changed from Jacob to Israel - from "heal grabber" to "wrestles with God". Jacob worked out his own salvation face to face with God, and didn't die. That wrestling match represents life - eternal life! Thereafter, Jesus was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 
     Jacob trusted in Jesus. He did not have any fear in the wrestling match. Just as fathers playfully wrestle with their children, God wrestled with Jacob. He had no desire to kill Jacob but to change him. Change is what people miss most with what is supposed to be transformation. Not only did Jacob have a name change but God changed his flesh as well. The thigh has meaning many places in scripture, and it is always symbolic of grace. After the wrestling match, Jacob's thigh was dislocated and he limped. It was Israel who limped, because Jacob won the wrestling match by grace! Thereafter, God was his "crutch". Israel depended on the Lord! 
     The change which occurs with regeneration, as Jacob was regenerated, is change. Christians are to become new creatures. Jacob did; he became Israel, and his flesh changed as well. He became more dependent on God, and that's the outcome of Christian conversion. 
     Jacob was in a camp of angels. They protected him from the other unseen camp. Jacob could have lost the match. If that had occurred, Jesus would have not been so graceful. We must remember that as we work out our own salvation, we too are in a wrestling match. We are in "Mahanaim" as well, protected by God's angels, but we must still wrestle with God! The camp of hosts are referees of sorts to ensure that Satan can't cheat. We wrestle with God knowing demons are watching on and discouraging, but only we can work out our salvation. It is us wrestling with God. God makes us the winners!


Saturday, December 29, 2018

Hope

     Beyond the Divine, hope is the most significant difference between psychology and Christology. Psychology is a man-made theology unfortunately with an unknown god (Acts 17:23) who they ignorantly worship. We think of psychology as wisdom, but according the apostle Paul, it is ignorance. Psychology a collection of diverse ideas on how people think and behave, and the solution to their maladies. Each theorist has their own unknown god.
     For instance, Carl Jung's was openly demonic. Many of his archetypes came from the netherworld. Much of his analytical psychology came from the invisible lips of a demon posing as a twelve-years old girl in a séance. Many are thrilled as they take the Meyers-Briggs Personality Tool which is based on his encounters with eastern religions and "dead" people. Those from whom he learned were without hope, but he made his religion "scientific" by describing it analytically. That is the method of all psychology theorists.
     What is hope and where can it be obtained? "Hope" is the expectation that something desirable will come true. Of course, people have different hopes. Most are temporal (e.g., I hope that my children are successful, and I hope that I live a long and prosperous life.) Profound hope is more eternal. (I hope that I never die.)
     When I was young, I often pondered on life and death. My hope was that I would never cease to exist. In my mind's eye, I tumbled in the darkness of the space with a mind but not existing. No longer did anyone acknowledge my presence, and no longer could I interact with mankind. The thought of no longer existing is devastating. Meditate on that right now. _________ (your name here) no longer exists, and you are alone in the void of nothingness. Think on that. Is there any hope there? That's what atheists believe. Atheism is the willingness to face eternity without hope! (The exclamation point is not for excitement but merely for emphasis.)
     The notion that people die and cease to exist is "fatalism" because atheists, according to them, have no way of changing their eternal destiny. Christians do! Even if we are wrong, which we're not, we still have the hope of salvation: "It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord" (Lam 3:26). Atheists have no eternal hope. In the best case scenario, their hope is that God doesn't exist because if He does, they will be judged harshly. However, that hope exists only for a short time compared to eternity.
     I sought God because of fatalism. I always wanted to continue to exist. It wasn't that I was afraid of Hell, but because I could not visualize a world without me. In other words, I became my own god. I did not focus on the real God but my own. I wanted to be saved from a fatalistic non-existence, but failed to understand that God saves Christians from much more than that!
     The afterlife is more than ceasing to exist. There is no hope in that. Christians have the hope of salvation. It's not hope that we shall always exist somehow, but that we shall be saved from Hell. Oftentimes people do not fear death because they do not believe in Hell. Well-meaning people endlessly chant (trying to make it true): a good God would never send anyone to Hell. There is much wrong with that statement: God is a just God (Deut 32:4). By questioning Divine justice, those people are foolish - claiming to be more knowledgeable than God. That is mankind's big problem; we know better than God!
     Furthermore, God never sends anyone to Hell. That is a personal decision because there is an alternative. Jesus said, "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again" (John 3:7). He was indicating, do not be surprised!  There is one thing that must happen to eternally exist and at the same time be saved from Hell. He meant that everyone who seeks hope must diminish themselves and lift up God. We have problem doing either because it is our weak "god" that we want Almighty God to save. God wants that we quit being "gods", and credit Him with Almightiness. "The Son of man (Jesus) must be lifted up" (John 12:34). Proud people don't want to do that; they want to lift-up themselves with self-esteem:  "Vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind" (Col 2:16)
     Christians would rather have hope than be vainly puffed-up; that puffiness is prideful. We must submit that we are weak but He is strong! That acknowledgement is the source of hope. Hope is not wishing it was true but trusting that eternal life is our destiny. It's not, I hope so, but I know it is! 
     Doubt is the nemesis of hope. Satan's M.O. is putting doubt in the minds of everyone: those who are not and those who are born again. It's easier for him to put doubt in the minds of those who have not turned to Jesus, but he is persistent; he continues inflicting doubt on even those with the hope of salvation.
     That's because hope is alive but has not climaxed. The climax of hope is when the thing hoped for comes true. Hope commences when one is born-again which is the answer to the second question. Hope ceases when the thing comes true. When is that? When the dead and the living are caught up in the sky with Jesus and are glorified - made like him in mind, body, and spirit! At that time we will reach the apex of our existence - being truly like God.
     I spoke of the despair of fatalism, but it is much worse than that. Hell must be for real in that we must be born again to be saved from it. People must have something from which to be saved! How can that be? How can anyone have hope?
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Heb 11:6).
     Jesus did the dying. That must be: "The Son of man (Jesus) must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again" Luke 24:7. Because Jesus must be delivered from sinful men, we must be born again for him to deliver us from sin. Christ's death is our hope of salvation. We must be born again because Jesus must be delivered to death. For our must to be efficacious Jesus' death must not be in vain (The Fifth Commandment in my opinion.) Our hope must be in Jesus death, and those with hope must believe that He is God who died on the cross. His resurrection from the dead is our hope that we can do the same.
     God rewards those who diligently seek him. The first reward is the hope of salvation, and the second is that those born again shall be saved by resurrection. In the interim their hope is assured by retention of the faith they had when they first believed (Rom 13:11). That hope is an outcome of faith.
     Doubt disrupts hope. How many when they sin think, I don't deserve eternal life. No one does! Satan wants you to have thoughts that you deserve reward. We know in our hearts that we don't. That type of doublethink makes Christians doubt and diminishes hope. We know in whom we trust by whom we serve. It is rational to question if you are serving Satan are you serving God (Mat 6:24).
     If we hope that we are born again, then we must change and diligently seek God. That's why we are to study the Word; it's our sword against the Devil (Ephes 6:17). Christians protect their hope by brandishing the Word against Satan: "Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up" (Jas 4:9-10).
     We must be empathetic to God's death in our place! When we look to Jesus on the tree dying in our place, their should be some grief. Grief for God is the source of hope. Looking up at the dead Serpent on his pole elevates Jesus. His death on the cross effectually killed the Serpent (Gen 3:14) which is the theme of the entire Bible! (See my book The Skull of Adam).  Let's look at one other "must be" which was done for us:
And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. (Luke 24:44)
     Jesus was born to die. In order for mankind to live, God must die on the cross. My book, Killing God, is about God's death; what it really means.  God's Flesh had to die to provide hope for mankind. If God had not died and resurrected, we would have no hope for the same. Christians truly become as God because we have the hope of eternal life. Atheism does not offer that, and neither does the humanism of philosophy nor psychology. They offer no hope beyond the grave.
     I am inclined to believe that everyone is somewhat depressed because they have little of no hope. They realize in their hearts that merely existing in this life offers only temporal hope. That is not emotionally satisfying. It is true that those with any degree of psychosis are sick, and they need treatment. There is no cure and people can never be "fixed" unless they are regenerated (born again). To have hope means that sinners are returned to Paradise - a re-genesis.

Friday, December 28, 2018

The Philosophy of Psychology

     If we're thinking of anything else, we are not thinking of God. Because mankind is the biggest competitor to God, the philosophy of the world is to keep our minds on ourselves. Psychology is the process of self-absorption. The purpose of psychology is maintaining or reclaiming self-esteem. Ironically, the high esteem which people already have for themselves is the roadblock to esteeming Christ!
      Psychology feeds on those with self-pity and imbalances. Indeed, self-pity is an imbalance. Of course, some people have clinical depression. That is not an emotional dysfunction but a neurological problem. Therapy can do little more than treat the depression with drugs to enable the synapses to transmit more effectively. Other than that, psychology can never "fix" anything, and honest psychologists do not claim to be able to cure anything; their goal is for the patient to help themselves. Taking care of ourselves is spiritually problematic. As far as "fixed" is concerned, how can that even be defined? Tribulation in the world will always create worry and turmoil. Nobody can "fix" that but God.
      Usually "fixed" in terms of psychology is the ability to cope with life. There is no measurement for "coping" so people must determine their own level of contentment. Many expect a utopian existence. That can never be found because there are no Utopias in this world! (Perhaps Ward Cleaver's family comes close, but Eddie Haskell ruins that for the Beaver.)
     Most people want continual satisfaction, pleasure, and love. Others add to that prestige, wealth, and reputation. Maslows's Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid presents "needs" but most people want more than that; they want their desires fulfilled as well. That's why lottery tickets sell so well, especially to the needy, who seem to value pleasure more than nourishment and contentment.
     Psychology is the "study of the soul". The soul, in their lexicon, is the psyche. Psychology is a branch of philosophy which is "the love of wisdom". The two together focus on the self. People love to think on and study themselves!
     "The love of self" is inborn in the animal kingdom and results in a striving to survive - to be one of the fittest. Like the animals, each of whom desire to be the fittest, people all want to survive as the fittest. With that, people have power struggles to maintain their status in life. Most people want to be loved, and when they perceive that they are not, it seems their esteem for themselves flattens. That is a delusion - that feeling of minimization is esteeming oneself. They would never want love and attention if they did not value themselves highly!
     "Love of self" is God-given. Scripture says that no one hates their own body (Ephes 5:29). Hatred is the lack of love. That could as well be written, everyone loves their own body. Everyone truly does because self-love is the reference amount for loving others (Mat 2:29). In the Greatest Commandment, God indicates the capability to love: hearts, minds, souls, and strengths (Mark 12:30. That is with our all and how much we value ourselves. Psychology seeks to convince dysfunctional people that they don't love themselves, and that that needs to be fixed.
      Actually, psychology knows that dysfunctional people have a spiritual problem; thus the study of the soul! Psychology is a religion whose gods are mankind's egos. "Egos" are the "I" in everyone. A person's self-importance can be measured by the number of I's, me's, and mine's they use. Those we say have a lack of self-esteem are usually the ones most concerned with the ego. The "id" in people is the instinct to be self-preserving and self-pleasuring. I would say that's what the Serpent meant when he said, "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" (Gen 3:5).
     Self-love is a characteristic with which mankind was endowed. If Adam had been created disdaining God's handiwork, he would have killed himself out of despair. People are expected to have a degree of self-love! How much is the problem! God desires that "none should perish" (John 3:16). His expectation is that his creatures want not to perish.
     God's desire for us is His expression of love, and His expectation is that we love ourselves so as not to perish. That is important because otherwise God would never be able to influence our lives! Ironically, Christians turn to God to save our own gods and goddesses - ourselves. "Born again" is when we see the light which is that we are not really gods, have no power to save ourselves, but that God Is God and can!
     Regeneration (born again) is to cease trusting ourselves and commence trusting God. It is a commitment: we quit the self-esteeming and begin Christ-esteeming! The souls of people are to be diminished as the Spirit of God is elevated. That is minimizing, not eliminating, self-love and the love of our own wisdom (philosophy), and elevating the love of God (philotheia), and the study of His Word (theology). It's not, however, the study of the Word which is saving but the love of the Word who is Jesus!
     Atheism is all about you. It is the religion of the self, and it's doctrines are philosophy and psychology. Christianity is all about Jesus, and it's doctrine is philotheia - the love of God. God has a Face and a Name. His "face" is Jesus and He is called Jesus. The focus is off the self and on Jesus: "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Implementing that is Christ-esteem and we are to so love God as much as He so loves us!
     God esteems Himself and wants love. He's not a weak God who wants love because He lacks Self-esteem. He's so certain of His Supremacy that the most important thing for Him is to be loved. Because people esteem themselves so highly, we too, made in the image of God, esteem ourselves highly and seek love. I hope you see how self-esteem has been misrepresented by the religion of the world! It is not mankind's kryptonite but his self-made gold. Self-esteem is deceptive: we are told that we are in emotional poverty all the while we are in emotional grandeur. Self-esteem is mankind's problem and Christ-esteem is the solution!
     Regeneration is returning to the Designer's intent. Adam never focused on his needs or contentment because God provided both. When he began to focus on himself was the first sin. Eating of the forbidden tree didn't provide nourishment but lusts of the eyes and flesh and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). Adam neglected his Creator in favor of Himself! The pride of life was as if he was responsible for his own stature. Not so! When he began to make himself as god, that attitude emancipated him from God. Because, he was remorseful, God quickly restored his bright nature as Adam realized that the works of his own hands was not sufficient or efficacious for regeneration - back to his origin.
     The superego is what we have learned to critique our conscience which governs the attitude of the soul. The id is the source of original sin, and the superego is how people rationalize their thinking. Eve blamed the Serpent and Adam blamed Eve for their own transgression. They learned that from Satan as suddenly the Serpent became their father (John 8:44) until by grace God adopted them again. Regeneration means returning to our genesis: worshiping our True Father and relinquishing our kidnapping father. Half-way born again, if that was possible, is trusting God for salvation, but failing to accept God as the Father to whom we show reverence, love, and obedience.
     People belong to the party of Mug-wumps; they have their "mugs" on one side of the fence and their "wumps" on the other. That's the condition of many Christians who trust the psychologists to adjust the soul when that is God's function.
   

Thursday, December 27, 2018

Glorification: Seeing God Face to Face

     Isaiah chapter thirty-five is about the New Earth. Verse ten refers to the "ransomed of the Lord." Sometimes prophecy is difficult to understand. What era and to whom were the prophets speaking? That chapter seems to be about a return to Paradise for the Garden is adequately described. 
     That return is for those ransomed. "Ransomed" is "delivered from sin or penalty" (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). We must keep in mind that Jesus's Purpose was to ransom mankind, not only from sin, but the consequences of it, and from the author of it. When Satan is destroyed forever, all mankind is saved. Satan's death is for everyone because God so loved the world (John 3:16), and everyone in it.
     Deviating from my point for a moment, salvation is by grace, and God's gift is to everyone. His death paid the ransom - redemption - for all mankind... even the hated Hitler and Stalin. Everyone are recipients of the gift of life, but like any gift, it must be desired or have utility for the recipient. Only those who appreciate and use the gift of salvation shall be saved. The gift cannot be declined nor put away for posterity. It is for immediate use. 
     Back to my point: Those ransomed by the Lord shall see the glory of the Lord! How do I know that?  Isaiah, inspired by God said it: "They shall see the glory of the Lord..." (from Isa 35:2).  We must remember the time when Moses was with God:
 And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen. (Exod 33:9,11, 18-23).
     God spoke to Moses face to face: However, Moses didn't see God's actual face; he saw God as a cloudy pillar. Sin kept Moses from seeing God's face. No man could look at God's face and live. Moses asked God to show him His glory, then the subject came to seeing God's face. Moses was not worthy to do so because of sin. No one was worthy because all had sinned:
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. (Rom 3:22-23)
    Sin makes it impossible to see God's face. Only when sin is cleansed by Jesus paying the ransom can anyone see God's face. "Well," you might say, "even those who killed Jesus saw God's face." Not really! They saw the Son of Man and not the Son of God. However, Moses did finally get to see God's face and live. I am speaking of Moses when he and Elijah appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration, and saw God's face in Jesus. It is supposed that off the mountain, Jesus appeared as an ordinary man, but when he was transformed, God endowed Jesus with His glorious face. Scripture described the glorious face of God quite well:
As he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him... While he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud. And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him. (Luke 9:29-32, 34-35)
    Peter, James, John, Moses, and Elijah saw God's glory - His face - and yet did not die because they were about to be ransomed. God was to redeem them by showing His face, and allowing the Face of God to be crucified.  Jesus showed God's face, and died so that others could look on His Face and not die. That's how the ransom was paid!
     Remembering the scripture when God appeared to Moses as a cloud but hid His face, now with the apostles and Elijah, Moses saw God's face as God disappeared in a cloud. Moses and Elijah "appeared in glory". Living in the presence of the Lord is glorification. Elijah never died. He was glorified when he looked on God's face in Heaven. Elijah saw God's face there - the face of Jesus transfigured, and before Jesus was ever born!
     Moses died, and was glorified. Moses and Elijah represent the living and the dead who will be glorified with the coming of Christ. The apostles were amazed; they saw God's face in Jesus. Elijah and Moses were not so amazed. They saw God's face all the time because there existence was in glory. We don't know what kind of temporary body Moses had, but someday soon his fleshly body will be rejoined to his soul, and will be incorruptible. That's what glorification does. It regenerates the body back to its original state as when Adam and Eve could see God's face.

     By the way, when I lift up Jesus and see the dead Serpent on his pole, I see the face of God. Jesus's Purpose is to kill the Serpent. He said that way back in Gen 3:14. My book, The Skull of Adam, is all about God showing His face to kill the Serpent once and for all!

   

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Kabala and Illumination

     The documentary, A Conspiracy to Rule: The Illuminati, I thought would reveal the non-Christian nature of the Illuminati. Rather than that, in a stealthily way, it linked mainly Christianity to the Illuminati, and all other religions offshoots of that religion, and  all with the same goal: to present the Father, mother, and Son as the reason for that vile secret society! 
     At the start, the documentary included mostly those who had misappropriated Christianity, for instance, the Knights Templar who surely did. Near the end, Jesus was listed plainly as a leader of the Illuminati. That method of deception is the same process that the Serpent used to misrepresent God on the Tree of Knowledge. In other words, the writers of that cunning (like the Serpent) documentary created propaganda (the truth used to badly influence all those who hear.)
     There was much truth in the documentary. For instance, there is much symbolism in Judaism. Concealed in most of it, is the notion of Christ. There is much in the Old Testament which is the foreshadowing of Jesus:

For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. (Heb 10:1).
     Jesus is represented by the tree part of the Tree of Life, God is its "root" and the waters which feed the root and bear the twelve fruits of the spirit is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. The sun shined on the Tree of Life, and produced a shadow. The shadow of the Tree of Life was Jesus foreshadowed. The Tree was symbolic, but the "shadow" in Hebrews 10 above was Jesus - "a shadow of good things to come." Why Jesus? Because Jesus is the "good" thing since only God is good and He is Jesus by Name (Mat 9:17).
     The Bible, including the Law, poetry, wisdom literature, and prophets are all symbolic and their common thread is Jesus Christ. All of the Word points toward Jesus because Jesus is the Word (John 3:1-2,14). When the Word was spoken, it was Jesus whose Voice was heard! Adam and Eve, before they sinned, saw Jesus plainly inside the Garden. After they sinned, they could only hear his Voice as he walked in the cool of the day (Gen 3:8).
     When I write commentary, I look for symbolism. To know the truth, it is imperative to know that the patriarchs and the prophets saw Jesus; they looked God in the face and lived. Thus, the entire Old Testament is all about Jesus. That idea is imperative to understand, but I do not misuse Holy Scripture. My intent is to reveal the mystery of God in such a way, that the reader sees Jesus in the Old Testament. Paul spoke of the mystery of God:
Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Cor 2:6-8)
    There is a mystery of God. Secret societies believe that there is a mystery to Christ and to understand the mystery is required for salvation. The Gnostics, those apostle-era false prophets, propagated that there is secret knowledge required to be a Christian. They are partially right: in the Old Testament only a few saw God face to face and lived. Everyone else had to understand that it was Jesus who they saw! However, after God showed His "face" incarnating Himself as Jesus, the mystery was revealed; it was Jesus all along!
And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: (Ephes 3:9).
     Those in the Old Testament who understood the mystery of God are the first layer of the Christian Church (Ephes 2:20). Thus, there is secret knowledge of old:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. (Rom 16:24-26).
    Jesus revealed the mystery: that salvation was never by the Law, was always by grace, and was not only for the Jews but the Gentiles as well. Thus, secret or mysterious knowledge was there all along but only a few saw Jesus in ancient times.  When God put on flesh, everyone could see God, and were without excuse. When they saw that Jesus Is God, that was the mysterious knowledge which God finally revealed to all mankind.
    Now for my point: the heresy of Kabbalah also understood the symbolism in the Bible, and the heresy of Gnosticism understood mysterious knowledge. On the other hand, those two groups of people perverted the truth. The Gnostics failed to understand that Jesus was revelation of the ancient mysteries, and the Kabbalah never saw the Godhead (Holy Trinity) in the Tree of Life!
    Few know of Kabbalah. It is Judaism distorted. Kabbala is the Hebrew word for "something received" and portends to have reception of secret knowledge and the solution to mysteries. Kabbalah did not get it right! They had their own version of the symbolism in the Tree of Life. Wikipedia explains Kabbalah: "Jewish Kabbalah is a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between God, the unchanging, eternal, and mysterious Ein Sof (אֵין סוֹף‬, "The Infinite"), and the mortal and finite universe (God's creation). It forms the foundation of mystical religious interpretations within Judaism."
     To be honest, the Old Testament does have much symbolism. Only those who have studied Jesus thoroughly can see Jesus in the Old Testament. The Jewish Kabbalah saw the symbolism, but understood it much differently. They created their own version of the Tree of Life (see graphic below).

Kabbala "Tree of Life" (Wikipedia; "Kabbala")

      The Kabbalah perversion of the Tree of Life is the Sephirot above; an upside down tree with the branches below and roots above. If we look to modern times, Satanists invert the cross which is a representation of the Tree of Life as well (1 Pet 2:24). Whenever, the cross or "tree" is upside down, it does not represent Jesus - the Tree of Life - as it should. Be suspicious!
     In Kabbalah the root and branches have a much different meaning:

Category:
Sefirah:
Super-conscious 1 Keter - "Crown"
Conscious intellect 2 Chokhmah - "Wisdom"
3 Binah - "Understanding"
Conscious emotions (Primary emotions:)
4 Chesed - "Kindness"
5 Gevurah - "Misericord"
6 Tiferet - "Beauty"
(Secondary emotions:)
7 Netzach - "Eternity"
8 Hod - "Splendour"
9 Yesod - "Foundation"
(Vessel to bring action:)
10 Malkuth - "Kingship"
(Wikipedia; "Sephirot")

     I see the attributes of "goodness" in the Kabbalah tree but I don't see the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. They even point out that it is the intellect and emotions. I submit that the Kabbalah Sephirot is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the "Kingship" therein is Satan's assumption of kingship. Their brand of secret knowledge is the hidden truth of the Forbidden Tree. What is it that the Serpent wanted? Kingship! This "tree" is the "world tree" of the eastern philosophies. It does not represent Jesus but Satan. 
     The documentary claimed that Kabbalah was the first organized attempt to illuminate the world, and those who developed Kabbalah were the first Illuminati. Not so! There "illumination" was darkness as they conveniently misrepresented the truth about the Tree of Life, eternity, and the Divinity. They made the Serpent into a God and appropriated the Serpents tree as God's. Even if Kabbalah were the first Illuminati, their god was not Jehovah but Satan! 
    The writers of the documentary said that Kabbalah pointed toward Jesus, and that Jesus intended to create a New World Order. Scripture indicates many places that it is Satan who desires to create a New World Order, not Jesus. Jesus came to re-create man, not the Kingdom. The heaven and the earth have always been God's Kingdom - the heaven His throne and the earth His footstool (Isa 66:1). God merely wants to return His Kingdom back to the way it was - a re-genesis. Satan, on the other hand is the demon who is creating a New World Order, not Jesus! 
     The writers misrepresented Jesus's Purpose. They did it so subtly that the Serpent would have been proud of their deception! 
     There have been many contenders for kings of a New World Order: Cain, Pharaoh, Tiglath-Pileser, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander, Caesar,  Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, Ghengis Kahn, Peter the Great, Napoleon, Robespierre, Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Ho Chi Minh, and even the European royalty. Nowhere do we find Jesus attempting to set up a Kingdom on Earth - a New World Order! Blaming Jesus for the desires of the Devil is the ultimate heresy. The Fifth Commandment describes that sin quite well and its penalty: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."
    For those of you who read my commentary regularly, you know that this commandment points toward misappropriating Jesus's Purpose by taking God's Name - Jesus - frivolously. It has little to do with saying God's Name carelessly, but taking God's Purpose of saving the world wrongly. 
    The Illuminati was bad, and may still exist. On the other hand, those who saw a divine plot to set up a New World Order entirely misrepresent the truth and Jehovah God. Many Christians hang onto the notion of a New World Order conspiracy advanced by Jewish financiers and communists. Indeed, they may be tools to meet the initiative, but the conspiracy is Satan's desire to be king of the heaven and earth. The New World Order is his, and all those who attempted that in the past are merely Satan's useful fools!

Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Illumination and the Illuminati

     "Divine illumination" is when a thought strikes seemingly from nowhere and invokes truth in  a person's mind.  The illuminated person credits the thought to a god. In the case of Christianity, that though is called "regeneration", and is a spiritual rebirth which Jesus called "born again".
     When anyone is divinely illuminated, there should arise a reason to change. Those who are truly illuminated know the truth, and knowing the truth receive a new nature which is to become a new person. Jesus told Nicodemus: "Marvel (wonder) not that I said unto thee, Ye must (it is necessary to) be born (created) again (from above in the beginning" (John 3:7).  (Note: Words in parentheses are from Strong's Dictionary definitions.) I'll rewrite that for clarity: Wonder not that I said to you, it is necessary for you to be recreated as in the beginning.
     I always believed that "regeneration" - the outcome of being born again - was to be as a person was at natural birth. After studying scripture, I concluded that "regeneration" is God recreating our spirits back to the way Adam was designed - in the image of God. "Regeneration" is then a re-genesis; "genesis" actual means generated or originated. Rebirth is then returning to mankind's original condition.
     From scripture, man was created innocent, and naïve it seems. Those who are divinely illuminated should manifest a change. That change is called righteousness, and is doing God's will rather than their own will.  The Lord's Prayer exhorts that: "Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth" (Luke 11:2).
     Those who have been divinely illuminated seek to do God's will while on earth as it will be done in Heaven. Because the Paradise of the Garden of Eden is the same or same as Paradise in Heaven, those who are illuminated should desire to a return to Paradise so to speak, and do things the way Adam and Eve should have done them. They should not have listened to the Serpent, and while on earth, God's will is that his people not! By heeding the cunning Serpent, innocent people jeopardize their safety. They put themselves in harms way.
     Why will the Devil harm Christians? We all are collateral damage in spiritual warfare. God protects Christians from Satan by putting a spiritual hedge around them (Job 1:10). I know of that hedge because I am illuminated - God keeps me safe from Satan! I am so certain of that, that I speak of safety as if I am already saved! That assurance of salvation is because I have been illuminated!
     At the start of this commentary, I referred to "divine illumination" because there are more than one kind. God refers to divine illumination as walking in his Light:
Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (John 8:12).
     Those who are illuminated are shined upon by Jesus. He is the Light of the world. Anyone who is divinely illuminated comes to realize that I can't save myself but Jesus can and will!  "Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6) and explains that the only way to go to God is through him. It seems that since cherubim guard the gate to Paradise (Gen 3:29), that the Name - Jesus - is the only way to enter into Paradise. It's not saying his Name but regarding Jesus's Purpose as efficacious (as in the Fifth Commandment.)
     On the other hand, there are the Illuminati - "the enlightened". The pretense is that the Illuminati are enlightened by God. Now for the apologetics portion of my point: I watched a documentary, A Conspiracy to Rule: The Illuminati,  last evening. Many think of tales of the Illuminati as a myth created by right-wing Christians. If that was true, then last evening's episode refuted it.  What is the Illuminati?

The name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on 1 May 1776. The society's goals were to oppose superstition, obscurantism, religious influence over public life, and abuses of state power. "The order of the day," they wrote in their general statutes, "is to put an end to the machinations of the purveyors of injustice, to control them without dominating them." (Richard van Dülmen, The Society of Enlightenment; Polity Press; 1992; p. 110).
     "The Enlighenment" was a period in history preceding the revolutionary world which rejected organized religion and Holy Scripture in favor of reason. In France, the New Republic destroyed the Church and created a new religion - the Cult of Reason - with Liberty as their sex goddess. (Yes, the same goddess which adorns New York Harbor.) Not by coincidence, the Enlightenment paralleled the Illuminati movement of that era.
    The aforementioned movie provided a detailed history of the Illuminati. What purpose have those who have been "illuminated" and by whom are they "illuminated"? The documentary movie commenced with Jewish Kabala.  The purpose of the Illuminati, according to the documentary, is to create a New World Order - a global government with those illuminated in charge. That notion is not Judaic nor Christian in doctrine; it is from reasoning originating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but its partakers credit it to Jesus Christ. Their contention is not that God really created man, but man created God. Why would the so-called enlightened ones  do that? To obtain the world, and to do that, they too must gain the heavens, or the souls of the people of the Church.

     Not by coincidence, Paul used the same words about Satan's deception that Jesus used about the necessity to be born again: "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light" (2 Cor 11:14). Marvel not that you must see the Light, is what Jesus implied. On the other hand, Paul reminded early Christians who the pretender to God's throne is: Satan transforming himself into an angel of light. Thus, there is divine true illumination, and false pretend illumination which Scripture calls "darkness" (Luke 11:34).
     The Illuminati are of the Devil, not from God. It is not divine illumination but the cunning of the Serpent. True light is corrupted by deception. Although the Illuminati claim to be the source of truth, they propagate a lie. The Illuminati is of the Devil because he seeks a New World Order with his emissary - the Antichrist - on the throne, claiming to be God. The Illuminati are falsely enlightened elite who have another god in God's face. They even claim Jesus as an Illuminated One. Their Jesus is a false Christ which we call THE Antichrist! (The writers of the documentary presented the Illuminati as in league with Judeo-Christians and Jesus. They are Satan's fools themselves!)
     The New World Order is the initiative of the Illuminated. They want what's in earth as it is in heaven. They desire to have a Utopia here, not in the plan of Paradise with God reigning, but with them in charge. Unbeknownst to them, they are Satan's pawns. It is him who would be in charge. Satan's desire is to be king in God's place, ruling over heaven and the earth:
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. (Isa 14:12-14).
     God reigns Supreme in the Kingdom of God. Satan (Lucifer) wants that for himself. He wants to create a New World Order with him King, sitting on the throne. It may be that Lucifer has his unholy trinity just as God Is Triune in substance. What I mean by that is it appears that Satan, the Antichrist, and the Beast are the three "substances" of Lucifer, and that he is one with three identities.
      Why would Lucifer have such a lofty unattainable goal? Because, God wants to create a New Heavenly Order - "in earth as it is in Heaven." God is in charge in the City of God. To impose his own will in opposition to God's will, Lucifer must endeavor to create a New World Order. The Book of Revelation speaks of the New World Order with the Antichrist proclaiming himself as king and god. That is the goal of the Illuminati, and why Christians fear the Great Tribulation so immensely! Our boogieman should be and is the Illuminati. (Our darkest enemy may be those of the ilk of the writers of that movie.)
     They are not a conspiracy of elite people. They are dupes doing the will of Satan, knowing not what they do. The folks who wrote the documentary mentioned above actually believe that Jesus was part of the dark Illuminati! Satan depends on fools to implement his rule! The Illuminati are Lucifer's useful idiots! 

Tomorrow I will continue with the dark version of illumination - the Illuminati.


Monday, December 24, 2018

Trees

     And after the once blind man received his sight, what happened next?  "And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking" (Mark 8:24). The blind man immediately saw what it took years for me to see; that men are as trees walking! When God told Adam to "dress and keep the Garden," He was surely referring to other "trees" (Gen 2:15).  Of course, there were no other human trees there, but the command to multiply would grow other trees (Gen 1:28).
     There was human potential in the Garden of Eden:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. (Ephes 1:3-4).
     Everyone existed in heavenly places before the foundation of the world. Some will say just the "elect" but God wants that none should perish. Thus, all mankind pre-existed, not in bodily form, but with a timeless soul. Creation was when Adam and Eve were fitted to their soul in the image of God: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen 1:26), and "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him" (Gen 1:27).
     The image was man with a mind, body, and soul. Because Adam was created without sin, he was imbued fully with the Holy Spirit. Only with original sin was Adam's soul vacated. Adam was re-created as God did a  re-genesis on him shortly after he was contrite. His original condition was restored but outside the Garden sin tainted him time and time again. However, Adam's spirit was willing although his flesh was weak, and God has his soul in safe-keeping until he is saved at the rapture of the living and the dead in Christ.
     Adam was born pure, but all others have been born in iniquity (Psalm 51:5). The human navel is our problem. We were all born with Adam's DNA but Adam was only created with God's! The navel which Buddha contemplated for so long, is mankind's problem, therein is not our solution.
     My point is that there were three types of trees in the Garden: The Tree of Life, representing the Godhead with the seen part representing Jesus Christ, the Tree of Knowledge representing Satan and his delusion of reason, and the other "trees" which would become the rest of us. Within the other "trees" were those who would live forever, and those which would be forever dying. The blind man saw those trees! I see them too. My desire is that none of those trees shall perish, and my vocation is the Great Commission - to keep those "trees" from dying.
    The Tree of Life had twelve fruits (Rev 22:2). The Tree of Knowledge had corresponding rotten fruits (Gal 5:19-21) and a few more to tantalize. Mankind, not totally corrupt, has some bad and some good fruits. (I don't believe in total depravity but mostly depraved because our one God-given attribute is the capacity in making a right decision regarding the gift of faith which God provides.) Our attitude is "as gods" (Gen 3:5).
     Mankind, not satisfied with being made in the image of God, create their own image. They, just as Satan did, assumed the role of a god (Isa 14:14). Satan is the pretender to God's throne, as are children of the Devil, and subsequently we too contend for God's throne. Neither Satan nor us will ever achieve godhood, but already act as if we are gods!
    How do gods act? To be a god, gods must have the ability to create. Mankind cannot create life, and will never truly be able to, but they can create images of false gods. Their best images are of themselves. Humans, before they are born again, perceive that they are gods. Gods must be appeased. Mankind is appeased by pleasure: lusts of the eyes and the flesh, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). The receptor of pleasure is the flesh. Hence, the flesh is mankind's idol. Those who are born again are to relinquish their idol, by diminishing themselves as they elevate God (John 3:14). What can you do to be born again? Lift up God and keep your eyes on His Purpose. God came in the flesh to kill the Serpent for us. We are only to quit attempting to do that on our own, and let God handle the Serpent!
    Gods, then seek reverence, love, and magnification. Those attitudes are reserved for God. Sure, we want to be loved, but that comes from the real God who loves us so! However, god-posers love themselves. Sinful people who fail to lift up God lift up themselves.. Because we are as "trees" before we are re-originated, we are more like Christmas trees. People focus on themselves, all sparkling and lit up, and flashing our on lights toward the heavens.
     How do people do that? By self-centeredness. Look at how people decorate their trees: attitudes, behaviors, self-righteousness, licentiousness, and then the physical decorations: expensive clothing, high-priced jewelry, elaborate hair-dos, make-up, lipstick, tattoos, and piercings/ Why is it that God commands modesty in behavior and dress? Because we are as our own gods, and we dress and keep us while we fail to dress and keep the other "trees". In fact, people diminish the other "trees" with arrogant, prideful, self-centered attitudes. If the focus is on us, it is not on God. Esteem of self is mankind's problem; Christ-esteem is the solution!
    If it is in scripture, it's there for a reason. Us "trees" are to me plain cedars, not all spruced up! We are the "cedar" trees with which the temple is built. Those "trees" which will live forever is what the temple of God is built from. We are the cedars of Lebanon, the trees of the Temple: " The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted" (Psalm 104:16). God wanted cedars used to build His Temple for several reasons, but they were all to represent his living trees:  they are modest, beautiful to Him, hardy and long-lasting, and full of sap which preserves them from harm but at the same time they are quite inflammable. Why is that so important? Because the Church (Temple) is a place of judgment; some trees shall live forever, and others burn up!\
     Sinners are more like the fig tree which is "the world tree". Christians are more like the olive tree which is the tree of peace. In my earlier commentary, I acknowledged that the fig represents the forbidden tree, and the olive, the Tree of Life. We are to allow our cedars to bow to the Olive Tree. We are to sing to THE Tree: "Then shall the trees of the wood sing out at the presence of the Lord, because he cometh to judge the earth" (1 Chron 16:33).
    I have written enough for the reader to know that we are not "as gods" but "as trees". Holy Scripture is full of comparisons of people to trees. The thread behind all that symbolism is that we are to be meek, humble, and modest. It is the Tree of Life to whom we are to bow down!
Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good. (Jer 10:1-5)

     Are those verses a condemnation of Christmas trees? Perhaps the early Assyrians or Babylonians had the same custom as nowadays, but I believe these passages refer to decoration of ourselves. God always sends multiple messages, always one practical but another one spiritual.