Killing God - Part 7 Nature of God Cont.

Sometimes even things symbolic of God are His death! Take, the Jewish menorah for instance. It represents the seven churches of Asia spoken of in the Revelation of John. ¹¹⁴ The stand for the seven lamps, would then, represent the Church which scripture symbolizes as the bride of Christ. The ultimate killing of God is in the last days when the candle shall be snuffed out. The voices of God and the Church shall be heard no more. ¹¹⁵ This is one last attempt to kill God! The menorah is the lamp that represents God. The olive oil therein is His Holy Spirit, and the gold is God’s humanity who is called Jesus. The menorah is not Jewish at all but fully Christian. When it was lit in the tabernacle long ago in the wilderness, the light from it was God’s Light.

The television reality show Survivor uses the lighted torch to represent life.  Probst’s last words are: "The tribe has spoken; it's time to go,” he says as the torch light is snuffed out. ¹¹⁶ With the menorah, it seems, mankind says “The world has spoken; it’s time to leave You,” referring to God. Thus the menorah unlit is the Church leaving God to “die”.

Another symbol of the Living God is the fire of the alter where the sin offering is made. Moses was instructed by God to keep the fire at the altar burning, and its fuel is flesh. In the tabernacle, the prime flesh without blemish, was the sin sacrifice. God was kept “alive” by continually sacrificing flesh to Him. God enjoyed the aroma of the sacrifices and was pleased!

The fire was kept burning for the ultimate sacrifice! God eventually sacrificed Himself for the sins of mankind. ¹¹⁸ With the physical death of God, the fire has imperishable fuel. The Shekinah of God always shines, indicating that God is alive and well! God is pleased as long as mankind joins Him in sacrificing. To keep the fore a burning, mankind returns to God in his original image as they present themselves “a living sacrfice” ¹¹⁹ Mankind, by self-sacrifice keeps the sacrificial fire burning. God ignited the flame with His Holy Ghost. It is mankind’s responsibility to allow the Spirit to burn within them! ¹²⁰ Love shown by obedience is mankind’s sacrifice, forgoing the pleasures of the flesh. The high priest sacrificed the flesh to keep the fire burning, and the Church keeps God “alive” by sacrificing the spiritual flesh – the pleasures of sin!

Crosses are seen everywhere in the western world. Even those in the far east wear the cross. The cross is symbolic of Jesus’s death instead of ours. It seems to be a symbol of thankfulness for grace. Grace is God’s death when it is mankind which deserves it! Men and women are the key players who are “so loved”. God substituted for man. He stepped in and died in place of all the sinners of all time who played without His rules. All of us! ¹²¹ Rather than be proud, mankind should be ashamed. Who killed God? Perhaps the reader may soon see the Light: Neither the Jews nor the Romans killed God – mankind did. God died because of sinners like us all!

Although the cross represents the death of God, it also represents man’s own life. Abraham saw God on the cross with his willingness to sacrifice his only remaining son since the elder had been emancipated. ¹²² Jacob was to be the lamb and was to die for mankind. He was not God. It had to be God who died for everyone! Abraham was willing to save God from death by sacrificing his own son, what God would do later by sacrificing Himself. Mankind “saves” God from death by self-sacrifice. Mankind of course can’t save God but his willingness to do so is similar to the faith of Abraham.  ¹²³

Abraham had a vision of the cross. It was the key which kept man alive, and because God so loved the world, the cross kept God alive as well. Mankind is God’s pleasure, and His desire is that all shall be saved. ¹²⁴

The cross was nothing new! It is a simile is the Tree of Life. Catholics refer to the “True Cross” – the remnants of the wooden cross on which God died. The Roman Empress Helena, Constantine’s wife, went to Jerusalem and believed she found the True Cross. Although she indeed did find a cross of wood, it takes faith to believe it was the very cross on which Jesus died. Constantine and many afterward used the True Cross in battle to defeat the enemy. Superstition poisons God. It was not the cross of Helena which saves but the true True Cross – the Tree of Life. Adam saw God, and killed Him, so to speak by standing under the forbidden tree and eating of its fruit.

Thus, it is not the wooden cross on Calvary which saves. It is the Tree of Life – God Himself who was nailed to the insignificant tree (in comparison). Catholics celebrate God’s death with icons showing Him still hanging on the “tree”. Others celebrate God’s life by the empty cross. How the cross is viewed is indicative of either a dying God or a living God. Ironically, with God still dead on the cross, mankind continues to kill God!

Man was created in the image of God, and God said “created in our image”. ¹²⁵ Hebrew El is used for God in the first instance and is singular. Elohim is used for God in the second instance, and is plural. It seems that it the beginning God’s Oneness and triune “nature” is significant. El is the One True God – the true True Cross. Elohim is He who was crucified on the true True Cross. It is imperative to realize that One True God was killed on the cross. Thereon died the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Of course, the hypothesis is that as God experienced death on the cross, His entire Being experienced death. As God’s flesh gave up the Spirit for mankind, His Spirit took on a new identity – the Ghost of His Flesh!

Mankind image was revealed in scripture: ”Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength”. ¹²⁶ The entirety of man is identified with how he can express love. Since man was created in the image of God, those characteristics are also God’s Identity or Existence! The Creator God is called the “Father” and is God’s Mind. The graceful God is identified by His Heart, which represents His Flesh which He would shortly assume. Man’s soul is the container for God’s Holy Spirit. The soul is the living temple of God. ¹²⁷ It would appear that God’s “soul” is His Holy Spirit. What about “the strength”? That is Almighty God! His Excellency’s Existence. Our own nature describes God’s substance. His Strength is the One True God – the true True Cross, and the other three characteristics represent His triune “nature”.

God is the Tree of Life. Not by accident, he died on a wooden cross which scripture refers to as a tree. ¹²⁸ It is not by accident that in the beginning, and the end by the way, God is represented as a tree. The patriarchs knew the method of God’s death well in advance. When Adam grabbed fig leaves to cover his and her shame, it was from another tree but he somehow knew that only by a Tree could he be redeemed by God! ¹²⁹ It is the Tree of Life which still lives. The cross is a simile of God. It has no power, and is thus, an icon but it is to magnify God. There is no shame in the Cross because it represents the Tree of Life – the part that was seen is a simile of God in the Flesh!

God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost to which is so casually separated out of convenience, together are the Triune One True God. They are not “persons’ since only one “person” experienced death, but are three aspects. Neither are they “personalities” since God has only one personality – being one person. God Existed in three different forms. The Father is “killed” by denying Him as Creator. The Son was killed because his killer’s denied that he is the Creator, and could not therefore be the Savior. The Holy Ghost is “killed” because He is not recognized as the Ghost of God! ¹³⁰ Denying the “nature” of the Holy Ghost as God, is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, which is the unpardonable sin. ¹³¹ Denying God’s Existence in any of His three “natures” is how mankind “kills” God. Blasphemy is “the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God, and the act of (oneself) claiming the attributes of a deity.” ¹³²

God is “killed” by denying His Existence, or any of the three Natures of God. When God is “killed” His murderer is a pretender to His throne. Those who attempt to murder God claim godhood for themselves. That too is blasphemy – what murdering God is called!

A book has been written called Killing Jesus. What is written herein is a supplement to that; unauthorized of course. Bill, O’ really? Did your book tell all the story? He was not only Jesus who was killed on the cross; God died that day!

God’s “natures” were further identified in scripture: (1) God, (2) Son of God, (3) Son of Man, and (4) Comforter. ¹³⁴ The Comforter is the Holy Ghost and is one “nature” of God. His feature is Power. That Power of God is Who came down on the virgin Mary and Fathered God in the Flesh “called Emmanuel” – or “God with us”. ^{135 136} He is the same Power who Comforts us, not to forget His part in the creation. When God took on the Flesh he had the “nature” of both parents. He was fully Man and fully God – thus the Son of Man and the Son of God. It seems impossible, but God birthed Himself. Never think on that as a natural from of conception but supra-natural. His Birth was God’s primo appearance to mankind! In essence, the Son of God was “called Emmanuel”, and the Son of Man was “called Jesus”. ¹³⁷

God did not clone Himself. God came down to mankind. One may ask, “How did He do that?” He is God! He can do anything. Just as He created the heaven, the earth, and Adam; God created His own flesh – ironically in the same image as Adam. Since Man was created in God’s image, with His foreknowledge, God made man similar to the appearance He chose for Himself! That is profound! Emmanuel’s birth is God’s descension. His resurrection introduced His ascension. In between, God descended into Hell where long committed sins were destroyed. ¹³⁸ Withstanding Hell, God is incorruptible but that doesn’t end Satan’s quest to destroy Him! That feature of God is just a small portion of His Almightiness!

¹¹⁴ ibid; Rev 1:12,20

¹¹⁵ ibid, Rev 18:22-24

¹¹⁶ shmoop.com

¹¹⁷ Holy Bible; Lev 6:9-13

¹¹⁸ ibid; Rom 3:25

¹¹⁹ ibid; Rom 12:1

¹²⁰ ibid; Acts 2:3

¹²¹ ibid; Rom 3:23; His 4:7

¹²² ibid; Gen 22

¹²³ ibid; Heb 11:7

¹²⁴ ibid; John 3:16

¹²⁵ ibid; Gen 1:26-27

¹²⁶ ibid; Mark 12:30

¹²⁷ ibid; 1 Cor 3:17

¹²⁸ ibid; 1 Peter 2:24

¹²⁹ ibid; Gen 3:7

¹³⁰ ibid; Luke 23:46

¹³¹ ibid; Mat 12:21

¹³² ibid; Merriam-Webster Dictionary; parenthesis mine

¹³³ Killing Jesus; Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard; Henry Holt & Co.; New York; 2013

¹³⁴ Holy Bible; John 8:58, Mat 14:33, Mat 9:6, John 4:16

¹³⁵ ibid; Luke 1:35

¹³⁶ ibid; Mat 1:23

¹³⁷ ibid; Mat 1:25

¹³⁸ ibid; Psalm 16:10